NOVEMBER 2019

NOV. '19

HOUSTON'S LGBTQ MAGAZINE

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HOUSTON BALLET CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

Pg.52

TDOR

HONORING THE TRANS LIVES LOST IN 2019 Pg.34

MONTROSE BICYCLE COPS A DECADE OF KEEPING THE GAYBORHOOD SAFE Out HPD officers Ann Waltman and Jeffrey Oliver Pg.38

PLUS

PICTURING PROGRESS

PHOTOS DOCUMENT FAMILIES SAVED BY AIDS TREATMENTS Pg.36

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D EC EM B ER 7 – 2 2 • THE HOBBY CENTER BOOK BY

THOMAS MEEHAN AND BOB MARTIN MUSIC BY

MATTHEW SKLAR LYRICS BY

CHAD BEGUELIN BASED UPON THE NEW LINE CINEMA FILM WRITTEN BY DAVID BERENBAUM

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FEATURES

NOVEMBER 2019

VOLUME 26 • NUMBER 10

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38

47

56

67

38 COVER STORY

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36

42

Montrose bicycle cops celebrate 10 years of patrolling the gayborhood

Itali Marlowe is the second black trans woman to die in Houston this year

Acclaimed photojournalist documents families affected by HIV and AIDS

Dancer-influencer Harper Watters appears in Instagram’s anti-bullying video series

56

58

Ryan Hawk explores BDSM through his kinky creations

Alley Theatre actor Dylan Godwin plays 40 roles in Fully Committed

KEEPING THE CLUB ZONE SAFE

47

CONFERENCE FOR LATINX WOMEN LatinaCon set to empower all Latina identities

TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

52

HOUSTON BALLET’S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY LGBTQ artists have played an integral role in the company’s development

PICTURING PROGRESS IN AIDS TREATMENT

THE ART OF FETISH

SUPERSTAR ADVOCATE

HE’S GOT CHARACTER

67

70

74

81

Houston Cinema Arts Festival showcases the work of nine queer directors

Space Kiddettes give local LGBTQ artists room to grow

Adam Rippon discusses making history as an openly gay Olympian

Flying in love: Brett Ximines and Kevin Nichols wed after meeting thousands of feet in the sky

LGBTQ FILMS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

4

NOVEMBER 2019

|

SETTING THE TONE FOR QUEER MUSIC

OutSmartMagazine.com

SKATING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING

WEDDING GUIDE

NOVEMBER 2019

DEPARTMENTS HOST YOUR NEXT CONFERENCE WITH US!

NEWS & COMMENT 11 NEWS 22 LEFT OUT

Holiday dinner drama: arguing about Trump, impeachment, Pence, Giuliani, and the real Constitution

26 UNAPOLOGETICALLY TRANS

Political wedge issue: protecting trans kids from the Texas Republican Party

30 MONEY SMART

Selling your business? Don’t move forward until you have all of your bases covered

32 TIME OUT

OUTSMART ’s readers and recommendations

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 84 QUEER QUOTES

Alice Walker, Judith Light, Derren Brown, and Warren Hurst

86 GROOVE OUT

Freddie Mercury, Mark Ronson, and more

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ON THE COVER MONTROSE BICYCLE COPS A decade of keeping the gayborhood safe. Pg. 38 Out HPD officers Ann Waltman and Jeffrey Oliver

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Contributing Writers Rich Arenschieldt, Susan Bankston, Contributing WritersAisha Bouderdaben, Troy Carrington, Kit van Cleave, AngelRich Curtis, Omar Afra, Olivia Flores Alvarez, Karen Derr, Steven Foster, DavidBankston, Goldberg, Arenschieldt, Bill Arning, Susan D.L. Groover, Marene Blake Hayes, Jenny Block, Sam Byrd,Gustin, Andrew Edmonson, Suzie DavidSte 7en Lynde, Foster, Donalevan Sarah Gish,Maines, David Goldberg, Elijah Gonzalez, Nahmod, Neil Ellis Orts,Marene Lilly Roddy, Martin DL Groover, Gustin, TerriHogstrom, Schlichenmeyer, Gregg Lisa Shapiro, Janice Kim James Hurst, Keen, Ryan Brandon Wolf, GraceMcKenzie, S. Yung M.Stensrude, Leach, Don Maines, Zachary Joanna O’Leary, Monica Roberts, Lilly Roddy, Photographers/Illustrators Terri Schlichenmeyer, Gregg Shapiro, Janice Dalton DeHart, Yvonne Feece, MarkWadding, Hiebert, Stensrude, Henry V. Thiel, Megan Manuel Lara, Eduardo Flores Perez Brandon Wolf,David Grace S. Yung

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

T

he holidays are quickly approaching, and this year there’s oh-so-much to celebrate!

Our cover stars, the Montrose Bicycle Cops, just marked 10 years of keeping Montrose safe. Brandon Wolf interviews out HPD officers Ann Waltman and Jeffrey Oliver about their crew, which has patrolled the LGBTQ club zone each weekend since November 2009.

Another upcoming milestone is the Houston Ballet’s 50th anniversary on December 6.

As Andrew Edmonson notes, LGBTQ artists have played an integral role in the company’s development. One of these individuals is out dancer Harper Watters, OutSmart’s September 2018 cover star. Writer Olivia FloresAlvarez interviews Watters about his role in Instagram’s new #advocate video series.

In advance of World AIDS Day on Decem-

ber 1, writer Sam Byrd interviews photojournalist Smiley Pool, who recently released a book that documents the lives of HIV-impacted families during the era when newly discovered treatments were being tested worldwide.

A list of World AIDS Day events are included in our monthly Queer Things to Do calendar.

Brandon Wolf also previews the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which takes place at three locations on November 20. This year’s memorial is especially heartbreaking, as two of the 22 victims lived in Houston.

In other trans Texas news, columnist Monica Roberts covers a recent nationallyreported custody battle in which two Dallasarea parents disagreed over their trans child’s gender identity. Meanwhile, writer Lourdes Zavaleta reports that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has added trans-affirming hormone therapy to three of their regional centers.

In another Houston first, the organization Latinas Rising hosts LatinaCon, an inaugural conference for Latinx women on November 9, writes Martin Gonzalez. Elsewhere in the issue, Edmonson previews the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, which showcases the work of nine LGBTQ directors.

If that’s not enough, writer Steven Foster will convince you to see the Alley Theatre’s production of Fully Committed, a one-man show starring Dylan Godwin, who plays 40 different characters. The production runs through December 29. Also, columnist Bill Arning introduces us to artist Ryan Hawk, whose creations are on display at SITE Gallery Houston through November 30.

Until then, have a happy Thanksgiving from all of us at OutSmart.

Greg Jeu

Publisher

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 9

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NEWS

Planned Parenthood Expands Trans Healthcare Three local centers offer hormone therapy with informed consent.

By LOURDES ZAVALETA

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

M

any transgender people struggle to access affirming and affordable healthcare in Texas, but Planned Parenthood is working to change that.

At least 22 percent of trans Texans didn’t see a doctor when they needed to in 2015 due to fear of being mistreated, and at least 38 percent could not afford it, according to the latest Texas State Report from the National Center for Transgender Equality.

In order to address these issues and others, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC)—a nonprofit that has provided reproductive healthcare to Greater Houston and Louisiana for the last 80 years—has expanded its services for trans and gender-nonconforming patients in three of its locations, says PPGC Medical Director Bhavik Kumar.

Over the summer, PPGC launched gender-affirming hormone therapy at the Northville Health Center of Houston and the New Orleans Health Center of Louisiana. In October, the nonprofit added this service to its Prevention Park location in central Houston.

“At Planned Parenthood, we believe everybody deserves healthcare—whether you’re cis or you’re trans,” Kumar says. “We’re also experts at recognizing when folks are marginalized, and helping to reduce those barriers. Offering trans care at our centers is in line with that.”

Some trans Texans have to drive three to five hours just to locate competent and affirming healthcare, according to Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) Executive Director Emmett Schelling. And even in metropolitan areas like Houston, trans folks face obstacles

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast now offers gender-affirming hormone therapy for patients 18 years old and up at Northville Health Center of Houston, New Orleans Health Center of Louisiana, and Prevention Park Health Center.

accessing healthcare due to societal issues, such as income and employment status, homelessness, and transportation.

“It’s great that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast expanded its gender-affirming hormone therapy,” Schelling says, “especially because so many trans issues are linked to reproductive justice, and what it means to have bodily autonomy and control over your own medical decisions.

“This is a game-changer,” Schelling adds. “Planned Parenthood is a trusted organization, and it has the ability to expand this care in areas where folks don’t have any other access to these services.”

The first Planned Parenthood affiliate began providing hormone therapy in 2005, and currently over 100 Planned Parenthood health centers in 28 states offer genderaffirming hormone therapy.

After PPGC added hormone therapy to its Northville and New Orleans centers, Kumar says the nonprofit saw higher rates of trans and gender-nonconforming patients visiting those locations. This solidified PPGC’s decision to begin offering these services at Prevention Park.

“Houston is such a large area, and folks have to drive very far just to get from one side of the city to the other,” Kumar says. “Prevention Park, being central, is convenient for many people, so we wanted to make sure we had these services in that location.”

Kumar says PPGC makes its healthcare affirming to trans and gendernonconforming patients by educating its staff to be knowledgable about gender CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 11

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

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BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including: } Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section. } Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY. } Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY. } Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. } Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain. } The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

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have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains: } dofetilide } rifampin } any other medicines to treat HIV-1

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including hepatitis infection. } Have any other health problems. } Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby.

Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY. } Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed.

Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

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} Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5. } If you need help paying for your medicine,

visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP LOVING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

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BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

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4/8/19 2:50 PM

PLANNED PARENTHOOD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

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identity and expression, and the issues that trans people face.

“Our staff is trained to be sensitive, welcoming, and aware of what our patients experience,” Kumar says. “They do their best to make sure that every experience is attuned to what a patient wants and needs. We also elicit feedback from people who come into our centers, so they let us know if there’s anything we need to improve on.”

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is a partner of Planned Parenthood locally and nationally, and supports its trans-affirming health services, says HRC Texas State Director Rebecca Marques.

“These services are much-needed, especially in Houston,” Marques says. “We’re happy to know that our trans community will be in good hands, as Planned Parenthood patients always get the high-quality, nonjudgmental healthcare that they need.”

PPGC will follow the “informed consent” model for patients who need hormone therapy, meaning the decision regarding treatment choice rests with the patient alone.

In the past, trans patients were expected to undergo extensive talk therapy in order to access medical interventions for their needs.

Under this approach, the ultimate decision

about who was a candidate for hormone treatment rested with the therapist.

“Folks who come in seeking genderaffirming hormone therapy have already thought about it, and know what is best for them,” Kumar says. “Medical standards show that requiring a doctor’s note for hormone therapy is unnecessary, and we trust our patients to make the best decisions for their lives and their health.”

While PPGC was unable to offer hormone therapy until recently, Kumar notes that the centers have always worked with trans patients, who still have access to the centers’ many other healthcare services.

“Trans folks who visit Planned Parenthood aren’t only coming in for hormone therapy,” Kumar says. “We want to emphasize that we offer a wide range of services, including HIV prevention, STI testing and treatment, abortion care, pregnancy testing, and more.”

Those who would like to schedule an appointment to discuss trans healthcare with a Planned Parenthood doctor must be 18 years old and up, and should visit plannedparenthood.org for information and resources.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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QUEER THINGS to DO Resolve to stay involved with the help of our weekly planner. Visit OutSmartMagazine.com

Remembering Their Names

The Houston Transgender Unity Committee marked Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018 with a memorial service at the University of Houston’s A.D. Bruce Religion Center. Pictured are attendees of the event and Committee Chair Loren Turner (inset), who read the names of last year’s victims of anti-trans violence.

COMMUNITY

NOVEMBER 20

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2019

G

GMVOZD/ISTOCK.COM; TURKEY TROT - LARRY RAINS/ISTOCK.COM

wendolyn Ann Smith, a trans woman, founded Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20, 1999, to memorialize the death of Rita Hester, who was a victim of anti-trans violence. Twenty years later, TDOR events are still held annually in November, and typically include a reading of the names of trans folks who have lost their lives during the previous 12

months. This year, Houstonians have several opportunities to observe TDOR and mourn the loss of 22 U.S. trans victims, two of which—Itali Marlowe, 29, and Tracy Single, 22—lived in Space City. Four of the murders occurred in Texas. Twenty-one of the victims, including Marlowe and Single, were black trans women. At 6:30 p.m., celebrate TDOR with Organización Latina de Trans en Texas’

COMMUNITY

NOVEMBER 26

Trans Community Potluck Go to the Montrose Center for this annual Thanksgiving party. The event, which is a tradition started in the mid-’90s by trans activist Brenda Thomas, is free and open to all trans individuals, family, friends, and allies of all ages. tinyurl.com/y56t5hcr

16 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

annual TransGiving dinner at Casa Anandrea (3339 Arbor St.). At 7 p.m., Dee Dee Watters hosts a TDOR event at St. Luke the Evangelist Episcopal Church (3530 Wheeler Ave.). Also at 7 p.m., Houston Transgender Unity Committee observes TDOR at Brasil Café (2604 Dunlavy St.). For more information about these events, or for any other TDOR listings that were posted after press time, visit outsmartmagazine.com.

SEE PAGE 34 FOR MORE INFO SOCIAL

NOVEMBER 28

Turkey Trot

Spend your Thanksgiving morning participating in a local tradition—the BakerRipley Houston Turkey Trot. This event is family-friendly and features opportunities for folks to compete in a 5K, a 10K, and a kids’ run in the Uptown Galleria area. Those unable to attend can register for the Virtual Trot. The 2019 Houston Turkey Trot benefits BakerRipley, a Houston community-building nonprofit. tinyurl.com/y4of2vfa

MUSIC

NOVEMBER 19

Deadspace Release Show

T

SPACEKIDDETTES.COM

he queer Houston duo Space Kiddettes celebrates the release of their new mixtape Deadspace with a concert at White Oak Music Hall. Each of the collaborations on the mixtape will be performed with the respective artists on stage, plus live performances by artists Tee Vee, STOO, Hank Honey, and The Body Speaks. tinyurl.com/y5ohuesf

SEE PAGE 70 FOR MORE INFO

FESTIVAL

November 2

ISAAC MIZRAHI IN HOUSTON The Jewish Books & Arts Festival kicks off with a conversation led by out fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. Festival runs through November 13. tinyurl.com/y2etwqq4

TALK

POLITICS

TAYLOR MAC IN HOUSTON

ELECTION DAY

November 5

STAGE

November 5

Annual Country Dinner at Neon Boots Dancehall & Saloon. tinyurl.com/y2uc9cw4

The playwright, actor, songwriter, performance artist, director, and producer will deliver the 2019 Mitchell Artist Lecture at Moores Opera House at U of H on Cullen Blvd.

Mac, who uses “judy” as a gender pronoun, will speak on his vision for the future of art in an uncertain world, and the power of transforming calamity into communion. tinyurl.com/y5yda23j SEE INTERVIEW AT OUTSMARTMAGAZINE.COM

FESTIVAL

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL

LATINACON 2019

COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY

BOWLING WITH LAMBDA

COMMUNITY

November 2

THE DIANA FOUNDATION

November 9 Latinas Rising, a Houston organization focused on creating social change in the Latinx community, hosts its inaugural LatinaCon at Warehouse 72. Themed “The Era of the Latina,” the convention is a gathering of powerful women bringing awareness, education, and advocacy to issues affecting Latinx women through workshops and panel discussions. tinyurl.com/y6ohs6d7 SEE PAGE 47 FOR MORE INFO

Beginning this voting cycle, all Harris County residents can vote at any early-voting location through November 2, or at any of the for more than 700 neighborhood polling locaChange tions on November 5. A printable version of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus endorsement card is available at thecaucus.org/ endorsements.

out

for

Change

COMMUNITY

WERQ THE WORLD

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS @NIGHT

GALVESTON HIV/AIDS SEAWALK

Access Care of Coastal Texas (ACCT) presents its second annual HIV/AIDS Seawalk.

The two-mile walk starts at 30th Street and Seawall, and attendees will walk together from 30th Street to 45th Street and back.

Following the walk, ACCT will participate in the “Sunday Funday” festivities at three Galveston LGBTQ bars. Registrations start at $25, and all walkers will receive T-shirts. For more information, call 409.763.2437 or visit accttexas.org/seawalk.aspx.

November 28 is Thanksgiving

November 13

FACEBOOK.COM/WERQTHEWORLD

November 10

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Bianca Del Rio brings her new 40-show U.S. tour, It’s Jester Joke, to the University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall. The self-proclaimed “clown in a gown” will share tales of her worldwide adventures and life in her comical “tell it like it is” voice. Del Rio’s show will cover topics ranging from politics to travel, family, and social media. tinyurl.com/y47uecao

November 10

Join Lambda Nextgen Houston for bowling at Lucky Strike. The bowling mixer is a social event for LGBTQ professionals ages 21–35 who want to network and build relationships. tinyurl.com/y2n2jclm

Learn about LGBTQ history by sorting through the past with the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center. The center needs help sorting, organizing, and moving boxes of archived materials in the LGBT History Research Collection at UH’s main library. No experience is necessary to volunteer, and the library will provide attendees with pizza and soft drinks. tinyurl.com/y58dzmhz

IT’S JESTER JOKE

COMMUNITY

November 9

November 9

STAGE

The official RuPaul’s Drag Race world tour returns to Houston with a brand-new production at the Wortham Theater Center. The event features Asia O’Hara on a journey to save the universe with her fellow intergalactic queens Aquaria, Monet X Change, Naomi Smalls, Violet Chachki, Plastique Tiara, Detox, and Yvie Oddly. After the show, head over to ReBar Houston for an after-party. tinyurl.com/y43e7kz3

November 8

for

SOCIAL

November 15

Mayor Sylvester Turner’s LGBTQ Advisory Board reflects on three years of advocacy work with an awards ceremony and reception. The awards show will honor those making a difference in Houston by advancing causes that positively affect the LGBTQ community. Proceeds benefit the board, allowing the group to continue its mission. tinyurl.com/y3zl7vps

BLESSED BE BAR NIGHT

Space City Sisters, Houston’s own dragqueen nuns, host Blessed Be Bar night at Ripcord. The Sisters will be in the doghouse selling jello shots and giving out blessings. tinyurl.com/y53wooxd

November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance MORE QUEER THINGS TO DO ➝

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 17

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

QUEER THINGS to DO SAVE the DATES COMMUNITY

December 6

World AIDS Day Luncheon The World AIDS Day Luncheon at the Ballroom at Bayou

Place will feature Project Runway star Mondo Guerra (pictured at left) headlining the AIDS Foundation Houston (AFH) event. Space City ranks 11th in the nation for new HIV transmissions, and over 26 percent of those HIV transmissions will develop into AIDS. Proceeds from the luncheon will help AFH provide healthcare services to Houstonians affected by HIV/AIDS. World AIDS Day is an annual observance held on December 1 to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and remember the community members we have lost to the disease. tinyurl.com/y5gqhux7

STAGE

Road to Beijing

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December 7

Queer Eye’s hairstylist pro Jonathan Van Ness (pictured at left, with Stephen Colbert) brings his comedy tour, Road to Beijing—which will detail his journey to becoming an Olympic figure skater—to Houston’s Revention Music Center. Van Ness, who bravely revealed that he is HIV-positive recently, describes his tour as “stand-up comedy meets gymnastics meets a night of glamour.” tinyurl.com/y6xxfn7z STAGE

December 7

Pride & Joy The Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston and Bayou City Women’s Chorus host Pride & Joy, a holiday concert at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church. The annual show will feature seasonal choral music and a traditional poinsettia fundraiser. tinyurl.com/yy4wqd3m

Submit your events at calendar@outsmartmagazine.com 18 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

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LEFT OUT

By SUSAN BANKSTON

Holiday Dinner Drama Arguing about Trump, impeachment, Pence, Giuliani, and the real Constitution.

Dense Pence

GRABOWSKI FOTO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Vice President Mike Pence (far right . . . really far right) visits Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland with his “mother” (or cousin?) Karen Pence (far left . . . really not far left).

W

e are entering the holiday season with enough presidential nonsense on the teevee to turn our family dinner gatherings into a food fight with all the trimmings. My Thanksgiving dinner could actually be more stressful than the time Cousin Melba Lynn showed up with her triplets, fed them enough sweet potato pie to launch a nuclear missile, and then left them behind so she could bike-ride nekkid through the neighborhood with the Hell’s Angels. (In a side note, Grandma called the neighbors to tell them that Melba Lynn had been kidnapped this time. Someone then called the police, obviously unaware of Melba Lynn’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Hell’s Angels Attracting Attention division. The police promptly showed up to watch.)

This year, to enhance the quality of our family arguments, we can add in the prospect of televised impeachment hearings for a president who divides people better than a guillotine and blows

words around like he was a hurricane with a dictionary. Being as how his belt doesn’t go through all the loops, your family can spend their Thanksgiving arguing about what constitutes rational thought, and how the hell did we end up with a president that you couldn’t clean up with a damn Brillo Pad. Here are my predictions on the major plot twists that will be revealed during the impeachment hearings. I’m sharing them with you so you can be prepared to duck at the Thanksgiving dinner table if any of these topics come up: • Trump also extorted East Bandor for dirt on Andrew Yang.

Then we learn that there is no East Bandor but, not unexpectedly, it shares a P.O. Box address with Rudy Giuliani.

• Mike Pence’s’ wife, whom he calls Mother, is actually his cousin. (Had you fooled, didn’t he?)

• Attorney General Bob Barr’s law license is printed in white ink on white paper, because you can never be too white.

• The Rev. Robert Jeffress, of the

22 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

First Baptist Church of Dallas, testifies that the real Constitution (the one we had before the Deep State changed it) includes Trump’s signature as a Founding Father.

• Rick Perry yee’d his last haw immediately following his testimony as the Dumb-O-Meter was spinning so fast it downshifted and blew a gasket. In an amusing twist, it also blew the Texas Secretary of State.

• Trump’s entire Cabinet is in the witness protection program.

• OutSmart publisher Greg Jeu interrupted an impeachment hearing after Rudy Giuliani’s spittle landed on Greg during one of Giuliani’s unhinged rants.

After Greg shouted Eeeeewwww! loudly enough to be picked up on microphones at the Christian Narrowcasting Network, OutSmart ’s press credentials were revoked. (Okay, okay, that really won’t happen, but the thought of it makes Greg grin.)

• Jared Kushner? Not human. Not even close.

• Trump uses his White House address primarily to hide from

his creditors.

• Trump named himself the Napoleon of Nomenclature for coming up with “Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love” as the official nickname for North Korea’s Premier Kim Jong Un. • Trump’s trade agreements are now given out with a Happy Meal.

• Steve Mnuchin once sought to change the name of the Treasury Department to “Cap’n Steve and the Money Raiders.”

• Mike Pompeo bought a movie studio to make this season’s action thriller Men in White: The Trump Administration.

• Rick Perry bought Purdue Pharmacy and gave it to Rudy Giuliani in exchange for a lifetime supply of tainted corporate ethics.

Have a festive Thanksgiving, and don’t eat Aunt Thelma’s sweet potatoes. Those aren’t nuts on top, they’re the ammo that she misplaced.

Susan Bankston lives in Richmond, Texas, where she writes about her hairdresser at The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc., at juanitajean.com.

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Important Facts About DOVATO

Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: (cont’d) This is only a brief summary of important information about • are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you DOVATO and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider take DOVATO. about your condition and treatment. ° You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing What is the Most Important Information I Should HIV-1 to your baby.

Know about DOVATO? ° One of the medicines in DOVATO (lamivudine) passes into your breastmilk.

If you have both human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and ° Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby. hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, DOVATO can cause serious side Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, effects, including: including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and • Resistant HBV infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV herbal supplements. infection before you start treatment with DOVATO. If you have HIV-1 and Some medicines interact with DOVATO. Keep a list of your medicines and show hepatitis B, the hepatitis B virus can change (mutate) during your treatment it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. with DOVATO and become harder to treat (resistant). It is not known if • You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for a list of medicines that DOVATO is safe and effective in people who have HIV-1 and HBV infection. interact with DOVATO. • Worsening of HBV infection. If you have HIV-1 and HBV infection, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking DOVATO. A “flare-up” is when • Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider can tell you if it is safe your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before. Worsening to take DOVATO with other medicines. liver disease can be serious and may lead to death.

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO? Do not run out of DOVATO. Refi ll your prescription or talk to your ° DOVATO can cause serious side effects, including: healthcare provider before your DOVATO is all gone.

• Those in the “What is the Most Important Information I Should ° Do not stop DOVATO without first talking to your healthcare Know about DOVATO?” section. provider. If you stop taking DOVATO, your healthcare provider will need • Allergic reactions. Call your healthcare provider right away if you to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months develop a rash with DOVATO. Stop taking DOVATO and get medical to check your liver. help right away if you develop a rash with any of the following signs What is DOVATO? or symptoms: fever; generally ill feeling; tiredness; muscle or joint aches; DOVATO is a prescription medicine that is used without other antiretroviral blisters or sores in mouth; blisters or peeling of the skin; redness or swelling of medicines to treat HIV-1 infection in adults: who have not received antiretroviral the eyes; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; problems breathing. medicines in the past,and without known resistance to the medicines dolutegravir • Liver problems. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus may have an or lamivudine. HIV-1 is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency increased risk of developing new or worsening changes in certain liver tests Syndrome (AIDS). It is not known if DOVATO is safe and effective in children. during treatment with DOVATO. Liver problems, including liver failure, have Who should not take DOVATO? also happened in people without a history of liver disease or other risk factors.

Do Not Take DOVATO if You: Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your liver.

• have ever had an allergic reaction to a medicine that contains dolutegravir Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the or lamivudine. following signs or symptoms of liver problems: your skin or the • take dofetilide. white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark or “tea-colored” urine; What should I tell my healthcare provider before using DOVATO? light-colored stools (bowel movements); nausea or vomiting; loss of appetite; Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis including if you: • have or have had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C infection. is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare • have kidney problems. provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms • are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. One of the medicines in DOVATO that could be signs of lactic acidosis: feel very weak or tired; unusual (dolutegravir) may harm your unborn baby. (not normal) muscle pain; trouble breathing; stomach pain with nausea and vomiting; feel cold, especially in your arms and legs; feel dizzy or lightheaded; ° You should not take DOVATO if you are planning to become pregnant or during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Your and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Lactic acidosis can also lead to severe liver problems, which can healthcare provider may prescribe a different medicine if you are planning to become pregnant or become pregnant during treatment with DOVATO. lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Tell your healthcare provider right ° If you can become pregnant, your healthcare provider will perform a pregnancy test before you start treatment with DOVATO. away if you get any of the signs or symptoms of liver problems which are listed above under “Liver problems.” You may be ° If you can become pregnant, you should consistently use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment with DOVATO. more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female or very overweight (obese). ° Tell your healthcare provider right away if you are planning to become pregnant, you become pregnant, or think you may be pregnant during treatment with DOVATO. ©2019 ViiV Healthcare or licensor.

DLLADVT190012 July 2019 Produced in USA.

Learn more about Alphonso and DOVATO at DOVATO.com

FS:6.875”

SO MUCH GOES INTO WHO I AM HIV MEDICINE IS ONE PART OF IT. Reasons to ask your doctor about DOVATO: DOVATO can help you reach and then stay undetectable* with just 2 medicines in 1 pill. That means fewer medicines† in your body while taking DOVATO You can take it any time of day with or without food (around the same time each day)—giving you flexibility DOVATO is a once-a-day complete treatment for adults who are new to HIV-1 medicine.

Results may vary. *Undetectable means reducing the HIV in your blood to very low levels (less than 50 copies per mL). † As compared with 3-drug regimens.

ALPHONSO‡ Living with HIV

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO (cont’d)?

• Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having new symptoms after you start taking DOVATO. • The most common side effects of DOVATO include: headache; diarrhea; nausea; trouble sleeping; and tiredness.

These are not all the possible side effects of DOVATO. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Where Can I Find More Information?

• Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

• Go to DOVATO.com or call 1-877-844-8872, where you can also get FDA-approved labeling.

Trademark is owned by or licensed to the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

Compensated by ViiV Healthcare

‡

Could DOVATO be right for you? Ask your doctor today.

FS:6.875”

UNAPOLOGETICALLY TRANS

By MONICA ROBERTS

Political Wedge Issue Protecting trans kids from the Texas Republican Party.

I

don’t have kids of my own, but I do have two nieces that I adore. There’s also a group of kids I’m not related to by blood that I also adore—our Texas trans kids.

I’ve said frequently in my now-21 years of trans activism that we do all of this work not for ourselves, but for the trans kids that are matriculating in Texas’ and the nation’s K–12 schools and colleges.

We trans elders and the Mama and Papa Bears fight these legislative and culture-war battles so that our trans cubs will have lives better than we did when we were their age.

And it looks like we’re once again going to have to fight tooth-and-nail to protect our trans kids from a Texas Republican Party hellbent on turning them into a political wedge issue.

Last month, a divorce case in the Dallas area that involved custody of a trans child blew up into the national consciousness, thanks to the Texas conserva-fools desperately trying to distract attention from soon-to-be former Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s scandal. (The Democrats are only nine seats from gaining control of the Texas House for the first time since 2002, and the Texas GOP is obviously nervous about that happening.)

So what do Republicans do to change the news cycle? They stick their noses in the Georgulas-Younger divorce case—because a trans child is involved.

Dr. Anne Georgulas is a pediatrician in the Dallas area who divorced her husband, Jeff Younger, in 2016 after catching him in a series of lies about his education, his military service, and even his previous marital status. As a result, Georgulas was given exclusive control of their twins’ medical, psychological, and educational issues.

Seven-year-old Luna, who has a twin brother, has made it clear (since 2015, when she was three) that she identifies as a girl. She has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by child psychologists certified in gender-iden-

26 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

tity issues. Georgoulas has allowed Luna to identify and live as a girl beginning at age five.

The problem is that Jeff Younger opposes that, and sued Georgulas for full custody of the twins in order to stop Luna’s transition. (Never mind the fact that when you allow a trans kid to transition, it decreases their odds of dying from suicide and they grow up to be happier and more well-adjusted adults.) Younger set up a website about the case that attracted the attention of the conserva-fools, who gleefully waded into this case so they could continue their GOP War on Trans People.

Donald Trump Jr., Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Greg Abbott, and indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton are just some of the Republican peeps who have opened their loud, wrong, and transphobic mouths in this case.

State representatives Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) and Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) are proposing legislation that would not only ban the use of puberty blockers in children, but would declare that allowing your kids to transition constitutes child abuse.

Au contraire, TXGOP. What’s in the best interest of a trans child is to give them the space and time to work out their genderidentity issues without political interference from you.

It was also unfortunate that Democratic Judge Kim Cooks overruled the jury (who, by

an 11–1 margin, sided with Dr. Georgulas in this case) and ordered joint custody. She also issued a gag order for both parents. Too bad that gag order doesn’t extend to Texas Republican politicians and their loud and wrong conserva-media cronies.

News flash for you transphobic peeps: children who are Luna’s age aren’t given puberty blockers until they hit 10 to 14 years old. Puberty blockers basically delay the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics in AFAB and AMAB kids. It also buys time for the child and their parents to determine their next steps in the transition journey.

Surgical interventions don’t usually happen until the child in question turns 18. Blockers are not only reversible, but they also have no negative physical or psychological effects on the child in question.

But since when did the Republican Party let science and facts get in the way of a good political smear campaign?

I thought the Texas Republican Party was all about individual freedom and liberty, and keeping government out of your life. Seems like they always make an exception to government interference in people’s lives when they want to oppress Texas trans people.

Did they not get the message to leave transgender Texans alone in 2017, when we killed SB 6 twice? The same goes for Texas trans kids. If you try to legislatively stop Texas trans kids from transitioning when the 2021 session kicks off, we trans elders, the Mama and Papa Bears, our trans kids, and our allies will be wandering Austin’s Pink Dome in force to stop you from passing that legislation.

Don’t Mess with Texas Trans Kids!

Monica Roberts, a native Houstonian, is the founding editor of the GLAAD award-winning blog TransGriot. Her ongoing mission is to educate people on the lives of transgender people and fight for everyone’s human rights.

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MONEY SMART

By GRACE S. YUNG, CFP

Selling Your Business?

Don’t move forward until you have all of your bases covered.

S

elling a closely held business is a big decision, because in many cases the current owner or a loved one likely put many hours (and dollars) into starting and building the company.

So, in addition to the sale having an impact on your income and assets, there can be an emotional factor, too.

The sale of your business can actually take many different forms, and it can also raise a number of legal, tax, and financial planning issues that you’ll need to consider. For this reason, it is essential to have a good understanding of the process before you put your business up for sale.

How Will You Be Compensated?

One of the key elements of selling your closely held business is determining how you will be compensated by the buyer. There are a number of different forms this can take, such as: • Cash for the sale of the company’s stock. Selling your (and your employees’) shares of stock in your company to the buyer for cash is typically the easiest route to take. This allows you to step away from the business completely, in return for a lump sum of cash that you can use for any purpose.

• Cash for the sale of the company’s assets. By selling only the company’s assets (and holding on to your shares of stock), you would remain a shareholder in the business, and still have a say in its operations.

• Exchanging stock in your company for shares of another. In this case, if the buyer of your company currently owns another business, you could exchange your shares of stock in your current business for shares in the buyer’s company.

• Selling your company’s assets in exchange for stock of the buyer’s company (if applicable). Rather than exchanging stock with your company’s 30 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

buyer, you could instead sell your business assets and obtain shares of the buyer’s current company (again, provided that the buyer presently owns another business).

• Converting your business to a publicly-traded company. Converting your business to a publicly traded company— which would require engaging in an IPO (Initial Public Offering)—could allow you to remain a shareholder, but with a much smaller percentage of ownership.

Watching Out for Mistakes and Liabilities Because there are many components involved when selling a closely held business, it is essential to ensure that you move through the process cautiously and that you are aware of any potential liabilities your company may be exposed to. These could include various contractual obligations, unpaid taxes, or even possible litigation.

There may be potential liabilities that are not yet known that could become an issue down the road. These current or future liabili-

ties must be addressed in terms of who will bear the burden, both now and later on.

Another consideration with selling your business involves the tax consequences. Keep in mind that what is best for you, the seller, may not necessarily be agreeable to the buyer.

For instance, the buyer may wish to deduct payments sooner rather than later. These may include payments for: • Your continued consulting services, which are usually deductible for the buyer in the year they are paid.

• Depreciable assets, such as the company’s building (which is typically depreciated over a period of years).

• Non-depreciable assets, such as unimproved land or shares of stock that are not deductible.

On the other hand, as the seller, there are a number of tax-related consequences that could occur, such as: • Payment for your stock will generally be taxed as a capital gain (provided that it exceeds the amount of your basis).

• Payments from the buyer for company

assets may also be taxed as capital gains to the extent that the payment is higher than the amount of your basis in the asset.

• Recapture of depreciation. In this case, various assets from your business could be depreciated, which can entitle you to a tax deduction that will also reduce your basis.

There are other items to consider with the sale of a closely held business, particularly if you are selling the company to a related party.

For instance, if property is sold to a relative and you incur a loss on the sale, you won’t be allowed to deduct that loss. Likewise, if there is a gain on the sale of depreciable property to a related party, it will be taxed in full as ordinary income (versus as a capital gain).

Other Important Considerations As a business owner, you are typically able to purchase supplemental business insurance coverage that offers a cash benefit after a disabling illness or accident, to help you pay living expenses and other costs that are not covered in traditional policies. If you don’t already have this type of insurance in place, it is a good idea to set it up now, as you can oftentimes take the coverage with you when you sell or leave the business.

Younger business owners should also consider purchasing a personal disability insurance plan that pays income benefits even if a disabling condition is not job-related.

This is particularly important because most workers’-compensation plans won’t provide benefits unless you are injured on the job. It is typically easier to qualify for health and disability coverage as part of a group-benefits plan, so these coverages should be considered sooner rather than later.

If you own the property where your business is located, another component of selling the company could be the sale of the underlying real estate. In this case, though, you may want to consider keeping the property, renting it to the new owner, and receiving a passiveincome stream.

Beginning the Sale Process There are many factors that need to be considered when selling your closely held business.

Because of that, it is recommended that you include several professionals who can help walk you through it. These should ideally include a financial advisor, an accountant, an attorney, and a business broker, where necessary. That way, you can be more assured that the transaction is properly conducted and that it is in your best interest.

Grace S. Yung, CFP , is a certified financial planner practitioner with experience in helping domestic partners plan their finances since 1994. She is a principal at Midtown Financial Group LLC in Houston and was recognized as a “Five-Star Wealth Manager” in the September 2017 issue of Texas Monthly.

Yung can be reached at grace.yung@lpl.com.

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INFO: accttexas.org Nov. 20: Transgender Day of Rememberance 2019 honors victims of violence in the transgender community.

INFO: outsmartmagazine.com for listings of events in Houston.

Dec. 5: ActOut at the Alley pre-show LGBTQ mixer before

the performance of Fully Committed.

INFO: AlleyTheatre.org Dec. 6: AIDS Foundation Houston’s World AIDS Day Luncheon at the Ballroom at Bayou Place, featuring Project Runway star Mondo Guerra. INFO: AFH.org Dec. 7: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston and Bayou City Women’s Chorus host Pride & Joy, a holiday concert at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church.

INFO: bcpahouston.org Dec. 19: Out@TUTS Night presents Elf—The Musical. After the curtain goes down, the party continues. Mingle with members of the cast and crew and sing a few show tunes. INFO tuts.com/out

Be social! Connect with us! @outsmarthouston

32 OCTOBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

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“Come Out, Come Out”

COMMUNITY

Itali Marlowe

Tracy Single

Muhlaysia Booker

Chynal Lindsey

Mourning Four Texas Victims on Transgender Day of Remembrance Itali Marlowe is the second black trans woman to die in Houston this year.

By BRANDON WOLF

T

he 2019 Transgender Day of Remembrance will be observed in Houston on November 20 at three different events. The memorials will be especially sad this year, as two of the nation’s 22 transgender victims lived in Houston. Four of the murders occurred in Texas. All but one of the 22 U.S. deaths were transgender women of color.

The Houston Transgender Unity Committee will hold their November 20 event at Brazil Café, 2604 Dunlavy Street, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Loren Turner, Chair of the Houston Transgender Unity Committee, explains the significance of Transgender Day of Remembrance events held across the country. “We [hold these events to] honor those in our worldwide community who were killed during the previous year because they were transgender individuals. Each year’s list is long—much too long.

“Sadly, this year’s list includes two of Houston’s own. Itali Marlowe and Tracy Single, two more beautiful black transgender women, have been taken from us. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of these two young ladies.

I don’t know of anything that can end their suffering, but please let justice be served.

“If anyone needs to talk about these ladies—if they need to release—come to our event. We are offering a safe and affirming

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environment to share stories and talk about those we have lost. If you are a part of the transgender community, a friend, or an ally, you are welcome.”

Activist Dee Dee Watters will host an event at St. Luke the Evangelist Episcopal Church, 3530 Wheeler Avenue, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Watters notes that this year’s theme is “I Am!” “Join us for a night of remembrance as we honor those murdered in the U.S. and uplift those of us left here. We will #SayTheirNames as we remember them, all the while acknowledging ourselves. There will be speakers, performances, and something specifically for the community.”

Activist Ana Andrea Molina and the Organización Latina de Trans en Texas will host an event at Casa Anandrea, at 3339 Arbor Street, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

“We will remember our sisters who [have gone on] ahead of us this year. There will be dinner, a speaker, and a cash raffle. Come and honor the lives of those transgender individuals who died at the hands of hate, whom we will remember with love. We will also be raising up the lives and voices of those of us who are still fighting and resisting systems of oppression.”

Itali Marlowe

On September 20, the Houston Police Department (HPD) responded to a call at 15829 Ridgeroe Lane, where it was discovered that

29-year-old Itali Marlowe had been shot multiple times. Paramedics transported her to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

According to HPD Homicide Division detectives W. Huff and J. Nguyen, charges have been filed against Raymond Donald Williams, 23, who is the sole suspect in Marlowe’s murder. Williams, who was living with Marlowe, was arrested on October 17.

Marlowe was deadnamed and misgendered in her obituary. Her death would likely have gone undocumented if not for a local LGBTQ leader who became aware that Marlowe had not shown up for a scheduled appointment. Marlowe’s family was contacted, and they responded that she had been shot in late September.

The local leader contacted local trans activist Dee Dee Watters, who contacted HPD. On October 9, HPD issued a revised statement that identified the murder victim as a transgender woman. Trans activist Monica Roberts then documented the death on her Trangriot website.

Marlowe’s death prompted transgender activists to disrupt the televised October 10 CNN/HRC LGBTQ town-hall event in Los Angeles. Activists shouted “People are dying, do something!” and “Trans lives matter!” Protestor Blossom Brown later grabbed a microphone and shouted, “Black trans women are dying, our lives matter!” Candidates and moderators

praised the protestors.

Dr. Jonatan Gioia met Itali Marlowe in 2018 through a local healthcare advocacy project. Giola says Marlowe was working at Whataburger at the time. Marlowe had moved to Atlanta, but returned to Houston earlier this year. “She had a strong personality—she could light up a room,” Gioia says.

Gioia spoke with Marlowe on numerous occasions. “She talked about her dreams—getting a job, buying a house. She wanted to thrive. She was a cheerful person, easy to get along with.

She was proud to be a transgender woman. She will be missed a lot.”

Violence against Black Trans Women

In recent years, activists and LGBTQ organizations have begun documenting the relentless violence against transgender individuals, the majority of whom are transgender women of color. Ten deaths were documented in 2014, 23 in 2015, 27 in 2016, 29 in 2017, and 26 in 2018.

The Human Rights Campaign reports that many victims are killed by acquaintances and partners. “Some of them have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear

“ITALI MARLOWE AND TRACY SINGLE, TWO MORE BEAUTIFUL BLACK TRANSGENDER WOMEN, HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM US. OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF THESE TWO YOUNG LADIES. I DON’T KNOW OF ANYTHING THAT CAN END THEIR SUFFERING, BUT PLEASE LET JUSTICE BE SERVED.” —Loren Turner, Houston Transgender Unity Committee

anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into homelessness.”

In addition to Marlowe, the other three 2019 Texas victims include: Tracy Single, 22, who was found dead in a Houston gas station parking lot on July 30, having suffered severe lacerations and punc-

ture wounds. In her honor, Houston illuminated City Hall in the pink, blue, and white colors of the trans Pride flag for two days in August, and illuminated a section of the freeway overpass bridges in the heavily LGBTQ Montrose neighborhood in the same colors. Joshua Dominic Bourgeois, 25, was arrested on August 23 and is charged with Single’s murder. Police said the two had been dating. (A remembrance of Single’s life appeared in the September 2019 edition of OutSmart magazine.)

Muhlaysia Booker, 23, who was found shot to death in Dallas on May 18, one month after she was attacked and beaten by a mob at an apartment complex. In June, Dallas police arrested Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 33, and charged him with Booker’s murder. Lyles was already in custody on charges of murdering two nontrans people in unrelated incidents.

Chynal Lindsey, 26, who was pulled from White Rock Lake in Dallas on June 1. The Dallas police said her body displayed “obvious signs of homicidal violence.” The police have reached out to the FBI for help in solving Lindsey’s murder.

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OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 35

PHOTOGRAPHY

Picturing Progress in AIDS Treatments Acclaimed photojournalist documents families affected by HIV and AIDS.

By SAM BYRD

2

J

ust in time for World AIDS Day, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Houston Chronicle photographer Smiley Pool has published a book of photographs documenting the lives of HIV-impacted children and their communities from the era of the newly discovered HIV medicines. Through the White Door is a 200-page love letter from the photojournalist, meant to show the faces and stories of people living with the virus.

“The big hope is that [by reading about] the lives of these people, we can open viewers’ hearts,” Pool says. “It’s always been my hope that through photography you can expose people to things in a way that might connect with them. I hope they can get connected with these characters and see their lives in a way they haven’t seen before.”

Pool didn’t actually set out to make a book at first. Instead, the ambitious project was the result of a chance photo assignment he was given while working for the Houston Chronicle 36 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

1

in the 1990s. Pool’s editor tapped him to follow a medical writer on a trip to Romania for a feature on a new treatment for HIV. What began as a story turned into an experience that altered the course of Pool’s life after meeting Dr. Mark Kline, who was researching new protease-inhibitor treatments.

“Mark wound up with the very first protease-inhibitor trial for pediatrics,” Pool recalls. “Mark had 12 kids in his care on a study. At that moment in history, the protease inhibitors were in trials in adults and showing tremendous progress. This was the ‘Lazarus’ moment for HIV. Mark had gone from treating symptoms to watching kids get better. Then he sees all these kids in Romania who need care.”

Romania was suffering from the aftermath of Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime that had created a large population of HIV-positive people.

Kline introduced Pool to a group of young Romanians who agreed to be captured on film for the assignment. Once back in the United States, the Chronicle ran an 8-page feature on the story. However, there was little public

3

response to that initial coverage.

Relentless in his pursuit of new treatments, Kline went back to Romania for another trial. Pool wanted to cover the topic once more, so he pitched his editor on the idea of comparing the lives of children in Romania with children receiving protease-inhibitor treatment in the U.S. “Let’s show what is possible in our community, and how we can bridge the gap with access to this care. It took a number of different patients [before we found] the right family and the right patient. We had to have consent, then we had to get consent of those around the patient,” Pool says. “Somehow, it landed me in the living room of a housing unit at Goodfellow Air Force Base with the Queen family. They were coming to Houston to be a part of Dr. Kline’s trial. I had a life-changing experience with this amazingly strong, open family who let me come in and share their lives.”

After several photo shoots, both in the U.S. and Romania, the Chronicle ran a 24-page section titled “Worlds Apart.” This time, people

JAY HUZ

noticed. Dr. Kline received the grant money to continue his medical research in a major way.

What started as an endeavor supported

by Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine now had the funding to make a real impact. It was named the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital, or BIPAI. The payoff looked a little different for Pool, though. By this point, he had been indoctrinated into the fight to help affected youth in whatever way he could. He volunteered at Camp Hope, a place where HIV-positive campers learn how to navigate the complexities of their diagnosis while also experiencing a week of fun, barrier-free activities, and quality time with their friends. Six of the children from Romania were invited to attend Camp Hope.

“I became very attached to Janie and to the kids at Camp Hope. Then the two storylines collided [with the introduction of the Romanian children], so I followed it. Janie became fast friends [with the youth from] Bucharest.

She was playing with all of the kids in a group home, and for me it was like all of the big-picture stuff didn’t matter. These kids shared the same medical condition, but in wildly different ways. For me, the fact that they could become so connected to each other was how I got hooked. These kids weren’t just photo subjects for me,” Pool says.

CAPTURING CHANGE

Smiley Pool’s photography in Through the White Door documents the lives of HIV-impacted children and their communities during the era of the newly discovered treatments.

He followed the children’s lives over the next two decades, often using his vacation time to travel and photograph them on a pro bono basis. He also followed the growth of Kline’s treatment initiative as it expanded across the globe. Originally a small study of a new drug, it had grown into an operation serving more than 300,000 children and families.

In addition to Romania and the U.S., Pool traveled to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Along the way, he covered the stories of Ingrid Kealotswe (who sought the new medications

1. 2006, KUEBUNYANE, LESOTHO Villagers carry the remains of a man who died after being flown from his mountain home by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to the main hospital in the capitol of Maseru. The same pilots flew him back home after his passing.

2. 2009, MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, ROMANIA Young men tend the fields as part of the agriculture program at the Casa Ashitanoie group home.

3. 2012, HAVELOCK, NORTH CAROLINA Friends float flowers and balloons in the water near where Janie Queen’s car went off the road and sank into Slocum Creek.

4

For more information throughthewhitedoor.com

4. 2014, BUNYANGABU DISTRICT, UGANDA Boda boda (motorcycle) drivers are trained and paid to respond immediately when a woman goes into labor.

5. 1999, CONSTANTA, ROMANIA Weary from examining hundreds of children, a member of the team from Houston takes a short break before resuming work.

for herself and her son), Dr. Rodica Matusa (who continues to serve children in need, even in retirement), Steven Doyle (who works with homeless Romanian children and is a surrogate father to one of the HIV-positive youth), and BIPAI’s staff, donors, and many brave children who shared their lives with the photographer.

After two decades and more than 22,000 photos, the thought of producing a book surfaced. The occasion of BIPAI’s 20th anniversary provided Pool with the inspiration to follow through with the challenge.

“Because these families allowed me to be a part of their lives and tell their stories, they deserve to have a record of it. Some of these kids did not make it, [but now] they’re immortalized in a way that honors their contribution to this planet and their struggle,” he says.

With the help of David Jack Browning (design), Kevin Martin (photo editing), and Jessica Johns Pool (text), Through the White Door finally came together.

The book’s title stems from a testimonial regarding HIV treatment trials in Botswana that is featured in the book: “Before the Botswana government was able to bring in medications for children, the only way that kids could get medicines was through a trial that was started, something called the BANA trial. Next to the Princess Marina inpatient ward, we renovated what really had just been a small closet into a clinical trial room, and the door on it was white. The mothers on the ward would say to the other mothers, ‘Take your child to that white door and see if you can get on those pills. Because the kids who go through the white door live, and the kids who don’t, don’t live.’”

Pool and his publication team felt the story summed up the transformation that occurred with the advent of antiretroviral HIV therapy, and its subsequent spread throughout the world.

Pool’s final product is an accomplishment that anyone would be proud of, but he says the work is not finished yet. Proceeds from book sales will support HIV/AIDS initiatives.

“It will go back to the programs that serve the people in the book: Camp Hope, BIPAI— anyone who is doing work on the ground,” he notes.

5

Through the White Door Photography

by Smiley Pool Worlds Apart Press Hardcover, 212 pages $44.99 OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 37

COVER FEATURE

Keeping the Club Zone Safe

HPD officers Ann Waltman (l), Brian Ells, Adam Bushfield, Ted Adams, and Jeffrey Oliver.

(Not pictured are Tony Ramos and Sgt. Kathleen Wingfield.)

38 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

T

hey are a familiar sight to Montrose club-goers—police on bikes with their neon-yellow shirts.

Lawbreakers fear them because they are so effective, but Houston’s LGBTQ community feels great admiration and affection for them.

This Houston Police Department (HPD) security operation is now in its tenth year of patrols in the Houston gayborhood. It is coordinated by out HPD senior police officer Ann

Waltman, who formed the squad in 2009.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo notes that the bike group has brought his officers closer to the community they serve. “By being accessible and visible, [they] enhance the safety and security of people in the Montrose area. It’s definitely something worth celebrating.”

Collaborating against Crime

The group has no official name, but its mem-

By BRANDON WOLF

AFR STUDIO

e

Montrose bicycle cops celebrate 10 years of patrolling the gayborhood.

bers are commonly referred to as the Montrose bicycle cops. They are an approved off-duty HPD activity, and the officers dress in their HPD bike-cop uniforms—neon-yellow shirts and black shorts.

Their salaries are paid by a collective comprised of Eagle Houston, George Country Sports Bar, Numbers Disco, and the Hollywood business strip. Two officers patrol together, Thursday through Sunday each week for four hours during the clubs’ busiest times. During

special events like Halloween and New Year’s, four officers are assigned.

Currently, Waltman is assisted by six HPD officers: senior police officers Brian Ells, Ted Adams, Jeffrey Oliver, Adam Bushfield, Tony Ramos, and Sgt. Kathleen Wingfield. Waltman and Oliver are out HPD officers, and the others are LGBTQ allies.

Oliver finished the HPD bike school in 2004, and joined the Montrose bike group about a year after it was first organized. Oliver

had been assigned to an HPD tactical unit in the Fondren area at the time.

Oliver likes bicycles, because it’s easier to interact with people and to catch illegal activity. “People don’t expect you to be on a bike, and they all have the same foolish look when they are caught,” he says.

HPD is a very accepting workplace for out officers, according to Oliver. He is the sergeant-at-arms for the new HPD LGBTQ committee.

Waltman was recently elected vice president of that committee, which was formed at the request of HPD Chief Acevedo. “We want to send a message to the greater community that we want to be a safe space for all segments of this city, including the LGBT community,” Acevedo says. “I am proud that officer Waltman and other members of the department have started the association. They took the challenge from the chief and are making it happen!”

Oliver says he enjoys interacting with all different types of LGBTQ people as he works the Montrose club area. “People who know us will come up to us and talk about things that they wouldn’t ordinarily talk with a police officer about,” he says. They often approach Oliver just to express their appreciation for what he does.

All of the Montrose patrol officers, who must be “bike certified,” earn their certification by attending the department’s bike school and passing a physical-endurance exam. They learn how to patrol and what to do when engaging with criminals. The school also focuses on dealing with a variety of obstacles. “We get our share of bruises!” says Waltman.

The officers patrol the areas between the clubs that sponsor them, watching for criminal activity such as auto theft, armed robbery, assaults, and illegal drug sales. The clubs in the collective have a special phone number for the flip-phone that the officers carry in case help is needed inside a club— mostly rowdy patrons or heavily intoxicated customers who try to drive home.

Waltman says that most intoxicated suspects are given the option of calling an Uber or Lyft. If they refuse, they are arrested and a police wagon is called to take them to a special sober-up facility at the downtown jail. When arrests are made for more serious charges, they are booked into the jail—where the officer must spend almost two hours filling out the paperwork for one arrest. ➝ OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 39

MONTROSE BICYCLE COPS | CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

The officers also help club owners by tracking down people who try to walk out on their bar tabs. “We once chased two suspects across Montrose Boulevard before we caught up with them,” Waltman says.

Currently, the officers average about four to five arrests a week, ranging from auto theft to disorderly conduct.

Drugs are a major concern for the officers.

The current drugs of choice are bath salts, Kush, and PCP. “Bath salts make people want to take their clothes off, PCP makes them superhuman, and Kush is synthetic marijuana—no one knows exactly what is put into it,” Waltman says.

Halloween is Waltman’s favorite night of the year. “The costume contests at Eagle and Numbers are amazing,” she says. But the night also presents challenges to public-decency laws—females cannot expose their nipples and neither sex can display their genitals. Waltman has stopped many a gay man from wearing a Gstring or cock sock. She tells them, “Nope, this isn’t going to happen!” She has found that men usually have an extra set of briefs with them to change into.

Mark DeLange, owner of Eagle Houston, says the bike patrol is a vital service that ben-

efits everyone who comes into the neighborhood at night to have fun. “Even though we as a community are more accepted—something we’ve always wanted—I’m still reminded of the Paul Broussard and Pulse tragedies.

[Providing security] is an important part of our commitment to a community that we not only serve, but live and work in also!”

A Decade of Improvements

Waltman started the bicycle patrol in November 2009 after watching HPD crime statistics and seeing that crime in the Montrose club area was soaring. She noticed that most of the apprehended criminals were from zip-codes outside of Montrose, and realized that drug dealers were targeting Montrose because they could get higher prices. Where drugs go, crime follows. In some cases, dealers would sell drugs and then assault the buyer and steal their car.

Club patrons became worried about their safety, getting from their cars to a club, or moving from club to club. The word was out that Montrose wasn’t safe, and clubs were seeing a dip in their sales. Patrolling the Montrose area was Walton’s regular HPD beat, and she was worried about her community. She felt deeply that something needed to change.

Waltman spent three months organizing a meeting of several bar owners. She asked them to fund a bicycle patrol collectively, and explained that it would be a win/win situation for them—the level of crime would drop, and business would increase again. The bicycle officers are also cheaper than HPD cruiser patrols because there is no gas or vehicle maintenance expense, and they can maneuver around traffic to respond to calls more quickly.

In the first year of operation, the bike cops made 378 arrests. The first two years of the patrol were the hardest, but finally the crime level dropped. Club owners and patrons were all pleased with the results. Waltman continues to monitor Montrose crime statistics, and notices that crime outside the patrol area is always higher than within its boundaries.

In the past decade, several different HPD officers have come and gone from the patrol group. Waltman doesn’t have a large pool to recruit from, since the bike cops must be HPD officers who are bike-certified.

Uniforms have changed since the patrol started. HPD bicycle officers used to wear the regular HPD uniforms, but four years ago the neon-yellow uniforms were introduced as a safety measure. Waltman says, “The new uni-

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OutSmartMagazine.com

forms are safer for the officers, but it’s harder to sneak up on criminals.”

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A 30-Year Police Career

Waltman joined the HPD in 1989 and began patrolling in 1990. In 1998, she went through the bike school and received her certification.

In 2000, Waltman asked to be assigned to the Montrose area, and has been working the neighborhood as her regular beat for 19 years.

Waltman was born in Beaumont in 1966 and moved to Houston when she was five. She enjoyed playing softball and soccer in elementary and middle school, and was part of a high school team that won a district championship.

Waltman remembers watching Policewoman, Cagney & Lacey, and The Bionic Woman. Her first love, though, was Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman.

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One of officer Waltman’s favorite parts about working the Montrose beat is meeting the folks who spend time in the club zone. Pictured is Waltman (r) with a man and his dog on Eagle’s pet-friendly front porch.

From the age of 17, Waltman wanted to be a police officer. When she heard an HPD recruiting commercial on KILT radio, “It was like flipping on a light switch, and the bulb has never gone off,” she says. But when she reached the hiring age of 19, HPD changed it to 21— and then went into a two-year hiring freeze.

Walton joined the Army Reserves instead, and studied criminology at UH Downtown where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1996.

In 2005, she earned a master’s degree from UH Clear Lake.

When Waltman was finally able to apply to HPD in 1989, she went up against over 1,000 applicants. She was chosen for a class of 70, which included seven women. The first time she put on a uniform, she felt that she was “born to it.” ➝ CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

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COMMUNITY

Superstar Advocate Dancer-influencer Harper Watters appears in Instagram’s anti-bullying series.

By OLIVIA FLORES ALVAREZ Photo by LUKE AUSTIN for Teen Vogue x Instagram

T

housands of people know Harper Watters as a standout soloist in the Houston Ballet. Thousands more know him as the guy in the six-inch pink heels who does great videos on Instagram.

He’s both. And those two personas became one last month in an Instagram video for National Bullying Prevention Month.

Watters, who is openly gay, has an Instagram following of more than 165,000—and he’ll be seen by millions more Instagram viewers as part of the #advocate series. We caught up with Watters and talked about his experiences with bullying, how he overcame it as a young man, and his continued efforts to break down stereotypes.

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OutSmart: What’s the Instagram #advocate series about?

Harper Watters: Instagram runs a series featuring advocates for various causes. October was anti-bullying month, and the four #advocate episodes for October were about bullying. Each video is between five and seven minutes long and is featured on IGTV, which is where Instagram has longer videos. The previous episodes in the series have gotten between 8 and 12 million views each, so I was jumping at the opportunity to bring that much attention to this cause. I’m extremely excited to be part of this. Instagram is teaming up with Teen Vogue for the series. They have predominantly young women as their audience. The unique audience I’ve built for myself is an incredible fit for Teen Vogue.

What happens in the video?

They followed me and got my day-to-day life.

My lovely dog will be making an appearance.

We came to the Houston Ballet studio, and I danced around. What was really, really special was that we were able to incorporate two other dancers from the company, Chun Wai Chan (a principal dancer) and Sam Rodriguez (a member of the corps de ballet). We were able to sit down and chat about who we are, how we got into ballet, and the struggles that we’ve endured. This is going to be seen by millions of people—312 million people follow Instagram, so I wanted to get different faces in front of the camera.

Bullying and ballet recently made headlines when Good Morning America host Lara Spencer made fun of Prince George, who is said to enjoy his ballet classes at school.

Lara Spencer sparked a major uproar.

It was bullying. It was saying, “You can’t like that” and making fun of him because he did.

Male dancers have to deal with that attitude throughout their career. But what was interesting was that it wasn’t just male dancers that were upset by her remark. She was mocking just Prince George, but bullying is a much larger issue and it affects everyone.

Were you ever bullied?

Of course! I was bullied for being a male dancer. When I came out of the closet, I was 14.

I was petrified about going back to school after that summer, because I thought I was going to have to endure a lot of bullying.

How did you handle it?

I forced my parents to let me audition for a performing-arts high school. Because I got to go to a performing-arts school, I was immersed in a community where people were super-supportive and super-encouraging. I banded together with some other people, and we became like the gay ballet Power Rangers.

If I experienced any negativity, because I had my friends it didn’t really matter.

But I’m hesitant when young people ask me, “How did you deal with this? What did you do?”

I changed schools and it worked for me, but I’m really cautious to not say to young people, “You have to move away in order to succeed.”

You don’t. It’s worth trying to figure it out where you are. I would encourage people to not drastically change their environment first. I think you can find supportive people no matter where you are, so changing your environment isn’t the only answer.

a terrible way of making you second-guess everything about yourself. They make you question your thoughts, your attitudes, everything.

You have to believe in yourself. I hope that people don’t think bullying is something that just happens when you’re a child. I still experience it today. I still experience the doubt and negativity. Navigating that is difficult. I have to stop and think, “Wait, am I the problem? Am I the issue?”

It’s a challenging thing to do something you love, and then have applause define the success of your efforts. At the same time, you can’t focus on the opinions of others. You have to do what you love because you love it, not just because you can get applause or approval.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO MOVE AWAY IN ORDER TO SUCCEED. I THINK YOU CAN FIND SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE, SO CHANGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT ISN’T THE ONLY ANSWER.”

You have had incredible success with social media, especially with your videos on Instagram where you appear wearing six-inch heels. People have come to know you for that.

Why do you think those videos have been so successful?

—Harper Watters

Did you have other allies? Did you have role models?

Looking back, I did have a lot of support at my dance studio. I don’t know why I thought that those girls wouldn’t have been supportive, and I wish I had come out to them. I think they would have supported me, but I left to go to the performing-arts school and didn’t really give them a chance.

And through the power of social media, I’ve had examples. I don’t know what I would have been like without social media, because I wouldn’t have been able to find other openly gay, African-American male dancers like Albert Evans. I also find a lot of inspiration from drag queens, people like RuPaul. He says, “We’re all born naked. The rest is drag.” I believe that. I’ve had role models, but I’m also about doing things to the beat of my own drum.

I want very much to put my own spin on things, and I really don’t like to be a follower. So when I see someone who’s doing the things in their life that I want to do, I think, “How do I make that Harper? How do I do that as me?”

What would you say to someone who is experiencing bullying today?

There will always be bullies. And bullies have

The heels are quite shocking and kitschy.

They’re fun and colorful, but really they quickly turned into a metaphorical superhero cape for me. When you put them on, you get a certain attitude; you have to walk a certain way. You have to hold yourself a certain way.

I encourage people through those videos—not literally or verbally—to go out and find your superhero cape. Not everybody needs to go out and put on a pair of six-inch pink heels, but find whatever is your passion. That’s what catapulted me to success on Instagram.

It’s been the same with ballet. When you get to the professional level, everyone is talented.

Here [at Houston Ballet], everyone is an amazing dancer. When I understood that I was valid, that my dancing was good enough, that’s when my career took off.

And I’ve found a home here. I’m really, really grateful to be in a company with people who are like my chosen family. I have the backs of all my dancer friends, and I think they have mine.

You think of Texas and you think of homosexuality, and it doesn’t really go hand in hand, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised.

Here I am, flourishing in Houston. We’ve had a lesbian mayor, we have an African-American mayor. [The Houston Ballet’s] artistic director and executive director are gay. So to have that has been wonderful. But I don’t think everyone knows that about Houston. I go to New York and people ask me, “Isn’t that all just oil and gas?” And yes it is, but it’s also the fantastic arts and the fantastic people. There are stereotypes about Texas and about ballet, and it’s really important to me to end those.

Find Harper Watters on Instagram at @theharperwatters. Find the Instagram advocates series at #advocates.

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 43

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MONTROSE BICYCLE COPS | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

At 53, Waltman looks younger than her age, in spite of the scars that show her dedication to her career. In the past three decades, she has had nine surgeries from assaults occurring on the job. She says, “One has to accept reality. If you can’t handle the danger, you shouldn’t be a police officer.” Recently, Waltman requested reassignment to the Memorial Park beat. “I want to start winding down for retirement,” she says.

Waltman is a familiar face in Houston’s LGBTQ community. In 2001, she was among the first out HPD officers to march in the Pride parade, and she’s marched in nearly every parade since. She has also worked on the security team at Bunnies on the Bayou for the past 18 years. When Houston’s pioneering LGBTQ activist Ray Hill was terminally ill in late 2018, Waltman visited him three or four times every week. Hill chose her to be one of his honorary pallbearers.

Since 2000, Waltman has coordinated security for the annual Pride festival and the street closures for the parade staging area. HPD supplies nearly 500 officers for the parade, but Pride Houston is responsible for festival security. In 2019, Waltman managed 144 off-duty officers who provided security throughout the day.

Looking back, Waltman says that when she first applied to HPD, she had to remain in the closet, but things have changed dramatically within HPD since then. Reflecting on her career, she says she loves her job because “every day is different, and no two days are the same.”

She also enjoys meeting so many different types of people.

A Caring Community

Managing the Montrose bike patrol is not about the money, Waltman says. It’s about all of the people who come up to her and thank her for being out there. “Sometimes people have tears in their eyes,” she says. “That’s why I’m still here!” She loves her community, and they love her back.

Waltman says she enjoys a lot of things about the Montrose club zone, such as a group that brings their pets to Eagle’s front porch area every Sunday afternoon. She smiles when she thinks about two people who use the Numbers parking lot every Friday night to practice their whipping skills, using beer cans for target practice. “You can hear those whips cracking three blocks away!”

The thing that touches Waltman the most, however, is the free Thanksgiving dinners that many of the clubs offer to the community. “For so many LGBT people, gay clubs have been the only place where they’ve felt a sense of family, and on this special day the clubs give them a family to celebrate with.”

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Powerful Leaders

Latinas Rising founders Sol (l), Edna Mojica, and Tasha James

COMMUNITY

Houston’s First-Ever Conference for Latinx Women LatinaCon set to empower all Latina identities.

T

By MARTIN GONZALEZ

he Houston organization Latinas Rising plans to usher in the era of the Latina with LatinaCon, an event that will address Latinx topics ranging from education and mental health to advocacy, legal issues, and the Afro-Latina identity.

Latinas Rising was founded by Edna Mojica, Tasha James, and Sol in 2017 to create spaces and social change that reflect the issues facing Latinx communities. The inaugural LatinaCon will provide Latinas of all backgrounds with a public platform to discuss these issues on Saturday, November 9, at Warehouse 72.

“We hope to inspire attendees to stand up, speak out, and do more for their communities,” says board president Sol. “We want to speak on subjects that are taboo to our own communities so that we can destigmatize them and break generational cycles.”

Latinas Rising advocates for all Latinas (including those belonging to the LGBTQ community) and educates on social-justice issues within the community—including sensitive

topics like domestic violence, sexual assault, and suicide prevention. The group’s belief is that all women have the right to be heard, celebrated, and highlighted.

Melissa Allala, a Mexican-American lesbian and Houston GLBT Political Caucus board member, serves as Latinas Rising’s director of diversity and inclusion. She uses her leadership roles to ensure LGBTQ Latinx people feel empowered to join conversations around community issues. In September, Allala helped facilitate and organize Latinas Rising: Queer Latinx, a panel featuring six LGBTQ Houston Latinas discussing their identities at Houston’s Montrose Center.

“Latinx folks in general make up 44.5% of the Houston population, but LGBTQ+ Latinx make up a much smaller portion of that percentage,” Allala says. “I want to make sure that we, as queer Latinx Houstonians, have a seat at the table.”

A featured panelist for Latinas Rising: Queer Latinx was Houston GLBT Political Caucus communications director Maria

Treviño-Rodriguez, a bisexual Latina. “Working with [Latinas Rising] was definitely a breath of fresh air,” Treviño-Rodriguez says.

“I had never worked with an all-Latina group who was so willing to prioritize intersectionality and uplift the voices of Latinas who don’t get heard.”

As two of the few queer Latinas in the GLBT Political Caucus, Allala and TreviñoRodriguez say they are all too aware of the difficulties Latinx people face in having their voices heard.

“I think the queer Latina community is one of the most overlooked portions of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Treviño-Rodriguez admits, “because I think it comes with a lot of cultural barriers when speaking about not just our gender expressions, but our sexual orientions as well.”

With the Latina population in Houston growing across a multitude of economic and social arenas, Allala believes it is crucial that we address the increasing concerns within the community through LatinaCon. “Mujeres (women) are starting to dominate different occupations in numbers, but as Latinas, we still need to have a seat in those spaces,” she says.

“I hope that this event resonates with those that attend it and motivates them to continue pushing through with advocating issues that affect Latinas.”

The conference comes at an important time in our history, according to Sol. “Due to the [socio-political] climate Latinx people are experiencing, it is important to create safe spaces and build community for our jente,” she says. “We need to speak on our experiences, our struggles, and our triumphs so that others know they are not alone. Most importantly, ➝ OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 47

LATINACON | CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

we need to create spaces and platforms for those that have been marginalized. We must continue to highlight the many women on the ground doing the work for our community.”

Rosie Castro—a Mexican-American civilrights activist, educator, poet, community organizer, and mother to Texas congressman Joaquin Castro and Democratic presidential nominee Julián Castro—is the keynote speaker for LatinaCon 2019. Castro, who has been involved in numerous community activist organizations, including the Young Democrats, the Committee for Barrio Betterment, the Raza Unida Party, the Texas Organizing Project, and AARP, will discuss her experiences with community engagement and how others can do the same.

“Rosie Castro was someone that we know has been doing [Latinx] equity work for many years,” Sol says. “She is a prime example of what we are celebrating at LatinaCon.” There will be three panels at the conference: one on destigmatizing Latinx mental health, one on law, advocacy, and education, and one on the Afro-Latinx identity. These panels will be facilitated by numerous Latinx activists and individuals with backgrounds in mental health, law and law enforcement, social

work, education, civil rights, and education.

Treviño-Rodriguez says the event will fill a void that currently exists in Houston. “I think there’s a lot of Latinas who have been looking for a space where we can all share our cultures and values and just celebrate each other,” she says. “I don’t think anything like this has existed [in Houston] before.”

At the moment, Latinas Rising is organizing to become a nonprofit group. “We want to continue to bring inspiring and educating events to our communities,” Sol says.

“Next year we are focusing on creating more research-based programs to tackle Latinx mental-health issues for our youth.”

In the future, the organization also plans on expanding its networks by opening chapters across the country. Latinas Rising also has its eye on a larger conference venue, citing the George R. Brown Convention Center as an ideal location for future LatinaCons. “The ultimate goal is to make LatinaCon a worldwide destination that thousands of women will look forward to,” Allala says. “I’d like to be able to offer a bigger variety of workshops that will be [even more] inclusive of the Latina community.”

Tickets for the event are $40, and include breakfast, lunch, and snacks served by Ware-

house 72. The conference welcomes people of all gender identities and sexual orientations, and hopes to educate and build community with those both inside and outside of Latina backgrounds.

“One of the most important things for us is to see ourselves in other people, [in order to] humanize and accept ourselves,” Treviño-Rodriguez says. “I think we’re going to find a nice sense of community in that space, and I don’t think anyone will regret attending.”

Sol says LatinaCon is for anyone that wants to learn more about a variety of issues affecting the Latinx community. As she puts it, “We simply want people to step away from the conference thinking, ‘My voice matters. I belong here. What I have to contribute is important to my community.”

For more information about Latinas Rising, visit facebook.com/pg/LatinasRising or follow them on Instagram @Latinas.Rising.

What: LatinaCon 2019 When: Saturday, Nov. 9, 8:30 a.m–3:30 p.m.

Where: Warehouse 72 (7620 Katy Fwy. #305) Tickets: tinyurl.com/y24ekax3

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STAGE

Houston Ballet’s Golden Anniversary LGBTQ artists have played an integral role in the company’s development.

Phillip Broomhead, pictured here as the Prince in The Sleeping Beauty, emerged as one of Houston Ballet’s most popular stars in the 1990s.

T

urning 50 is a milestone that can be fraught with conflicting emotions: exhilaration at having reached a significant life passage, anxiety about the loss of youth, and satisfaction at having amassed the hard-earned wisdom that life brings.

Whatever ambivalent feelings Houston Ballet may have had about turning 50, none of them were on display when the company launched its golden-anniversary season in September at Wortham Theater Center. Its performances of artistic director Stanton Welch’s staging of Giselle displayed a company in peak form, with the corps de ballet looking especially polished and precise. The stellar debuts of younger dancers Nozomi Iijima as Giselle and Chun Wai Chan as Albrecht bode well for the company’s future, signaling that there are rising young classical stars poised to carry the company forward.

At the end of September, Houston Ballet showcased a different side of its dancers in the mixed-repertory program Locally Grown, 52 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

GEOFF WINNINGHAM

By ANDREW EDMONSON

World Renowned, which demonstrated their mastery of more contemporary works. And in October, the company headed to Manhattan, the dance capital of the world, to perform at New York City Center, a hallowed venue that they last visited three decades ago.

Houston Ballet has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1955 as a school offering ballet classes for children in a converted Montrose garage at 813 Lovett Boulevard. Today, Houston Ballet has a $33 million budget, 59 dancers, a $70 million endowment, and is America’s fifth-largest ballet company. Over the last decade it has toured to Paris, Germany, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Australia.

On Friday, December 6, the company will throw itself a grand 50th birthday party with The Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance. This annual gala performance typically packs a wallop of high-octane choreography, with all of the company’s stars featured in short works designed to show off their unique talents and pieces d’occasion. This year, the jubilee will celebrate key chapters in the company’s history, including the early years of the 1950s and 1960s when Tatiana Semenova (a

former dancer with the Ballet Russe) methodically trained local children to be dancers, and the company’s salad days when it grew from a regional troupe to gain national prominence under the artistic direction of Ben Stevenson from 1976 to 2003.

The jubilee will include special appearances by Stevenson, James Clouser (who served as interim director of the company from 1975 to 1976), and other VIPs. The evening will have a multimedia component, and also feature a performance of the grand classical showpiece Paquita, which the company first danced in the early 1970s. The first act of the jubilee closes with a new work.

The ballet’s 50th-anniversary jubilee event will be a highly emotional one as it welcomes backs dancers from the last 50 years for an alumni weekend—a family reunion of sorts, with public discussions and other events planned. On Saturday, December 7, at 5:00 p.m., a panel discussion with Stanton Welch and company artists from over the years, Celebrating 50 Years of Creativity, will be held at the Houston Ballet Center for Dance at 601 Preston Street.

Throughout Houston Ballet’s history, LGBTQ dancers, choreographers, designers, and administrators have played an integral in the company’s development. We spotlight thirteen LGBTQ individuals who have contributed to Houston Ballet’s rise to international standing.

Stanton Welch

When Houston Ballet unveiled Indigo, Stanton Welch’s first work for the company in 1999, audiences were riveted by the shock of the new: a new movement vocabulary, a new way of seeing and showcasing the talents of younger dancers in the company, and a new, seductive sensuality that infused the choreographer’s response to two cello concerti

by Vivaldi. In 2003, he was named artistic director of the company, and quickly set about raising the level of their classical technique with a special focus on the company’s men. His stagings of 19th-century classics like Swan Lake and new narrative ballets like Marie have been met with decidedly mixed critical response. But he has aggressively expanded the company’s repertoire with blue-chip acquisitions by choreographers Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, and Justin Peck, among others. He has also commissioned memorable new works by emerging dancemakers, including Edwaard Liang’s mesmerizing Murmation in 2013 and Disha Zhang’s haunting 2019 Elapse, the first

work for an American company by the young Chinese artist.

Peter Farmer

The celebrated English designer Peter Farmer created Houston Ballet’s first full-length ballet The Nutcracker in 1972. In 2010, he gave the company his final gift: a ravishing production of La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer), depicting ancient India as it might have been envisioned through the eyes of a 19th-century Impressionist painter. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he defined the visual look of Houston Ballet, designing productions of such repertory staples as Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and Ben Stevenson’s original narrative ballet, Peer Gynt. He was a true English eccentric with a wry sense of humor who created set drops that looked like museum paintings by Fragonard. Seconds before the curtain rose on a new production, he would dash around the stage waving his spray can directly onto the costumes saying, “I just want to tart them up a bit!” When he died in January 2017, The Guardian of London summed up his achievement thusly: “An imaginary past, a delicate enchantment, a wistful exoticism: these were the hallmarks of Farmer’s atmospheric designs, especially for classic ballets.”

Preston J. Frazier

In 1981, volunteer extraordinaire Preston

Frazier proposed staging an event similar to a European street market at St. Philip Presbyterian Church to raise funds for Houston Ballet.

Almost four decades later, the Nutcracker Market has grown into one of the city’s most popular events, drawing 113,290 shoppers and generating over $20.6 million in sales at NRG Center in 2018. Since its inception, the Nutcracker Market has contributed over $68 million to Houston Ballet. Frazier was a longtime trustee of Houston Ballet, with an impressive knowledge of dance and a deep love of the company’s dancers. He could watch the graduation performances of Houston Ballet Academy and accurately predict which of the student dancers would one day rise to the highest rank of principal dancer in the professional company.

Mark Arvin

Mark Arvin will forever be remembered as the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy in Paul Taylor’s landmark 1991 work Company B, which became a signature piece for Houston Ballet. With his magnetic stage presence and megawatt charm, he made this role indelibly his own at its world premiere at the Kennedy Center. He appeared with Houston Ballet for ten years, rising to the rank of principal dancer and performing as both Romeo and the Prince in Cinderella. In 1993, he gave a ferocious, unforgettable performance as the homoerotic Bull in Christopher Bruce’s haunting spectacle Cruel Garden, which depicted the life and death of the great gay poet Federico García Lorca. In 1995, he made the leap to the Great White Way, performing on Broadway in such productions as Fosse, Chicago, Swing, The Sweet Smell of Success, and Movin’ Out. He died tragically at the age of 40.

Desmond Heeley

JOAN MARCUS

Beloved company star Mark Arvin made the role of the Bugle Boy his own when Houston Ballet premiered the landmark work Company B, choreographed by moderndance legend Paul Taylor at The Kennedy Center in 1991.

One of the great theatrical wizards of the second half of the twentieth century, designer Desmond Heeley won three Tony Awards and worked with the legendary figures of opera, ballet, and dance. From 1985 to 1998, Houston Ballet was his artistic home in America. He created magical, visually stunning productions of The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Coppélia, which became staples of the repertoire and generated tens of millions of dollars at the box office. Heeley’s sophisticated designs played a key role in Houston Ballet’s growth to international stature in the 1990s.

Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly was a dancer of enormous range who could adapt to many different movement idioms, from leading roles in the great 19thcentury classics to modern and contemporary works. In 1991, he debuted the role of Tico Tico in Paul Taylor’s Company B at the Kennedy ➝ OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 53

HOUSTON BALLET | CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

For four decades, the celebrated British designer Peter Farmer created lavish productions of the great classics for Houston Ballet, including La Bayadere (“The Temple Dancer”), his final work for the company in 2010. Pictured here is gay dancer Jim Nowakowski as the Fire God.

Center. In 1997, he danced the extraordinarily demanding lead role of The Chosen One in Glen Tetley’s The Rite of Spring. He demonstrated a particular talent for teaching and coaching, and served as ballet master for Houston Ballet during the year following his retirement as a dancer in the late 1990s. He parlayed this skill to make the transition to Broadway, staging and coaching the dance sections of such hit musicals as Movin’ Out for Twyla Tharp and the musical version of Billy Elliot. He is currently resident director for the Asia/Paris tours of Christopher Wheeldon’s Tony Award-winning production of An American in Paris.

Dominic Walsh

AMITAVA SARKAR

With his all-American good looks, Dominic Walsh emerged as one of Houston Ballet’s most popular stars in the 1990s, excelling in works ranging from leading roles in 19th-century classics to contemporary pieces by Christopher Bruce. In 2000, he made a particularly strong impression as Marc Anthony in Ben Stevenson’s blockbuster production of Cleopatra, a role that he debuted. During the late 1990s, he began to develop as a gifted choreographer, and in 2002 he launched his own company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, which delighted Houston audiences for over a decade with premieres and contemporary works. Today, he lives in Colorado and continues to expand his talents as a designer, having recently created the costumes for a new version of Cinderella in China.

Phillip Broomhead

When Trey McIntyre arrived at Houston Ballet Academy in 1987 as a tall, lanky young teenager from Kansas, artistic director Ben Stevenson immediately recognized his natural talent, and in 1989 created the special position of choreographic apprentice for him. He joined the professional company in 1990, and staged his first ballet for it at the age of 20. Throughout the 1990s, he created a series of playful, inventive works for Houston Ballet, including Second Before the Ground (1997), a signature piece that the company performed from Washington D.C. to London, and an enchanting three-act version of Peter Pan (2002) set to music by Edward Elgar. Commissions from the world’s leading ballet companies came in quick succession, including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. In 2005, he founded his own company, the Trey McIntyre Project, and he is increasingly recognized as one of America’s most talented living dance 54 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

GEOFF WINNINGHAM

Trey McIntyre

Phillip Broomhead brought a refined British classicism to roles like the Prince in Cinderella, which he performed opposite Janie Parker, Houston Ballet’s prima ballerina, in 1992.

makers. Comparing him to 20th-century master Antony Tudor, Alastair Macaulay (chief dance critic for the New York Times) observed, “There’s a fertility of invention and a modernity of spirit here that are all Mr. McIntyre’s own.” McIntyre returns to Houston Ballet in March 2020 to create a new work for his alma mater.

When dancer Phillip Broomhead left the commanding heights of London’s Royal Ballet to join Houston Ballet in 1991, his dashing good looks set hearts racing in Texas. With his refined British classicism, he was the perfect prince in classical ballets like The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. He also showed an affinity for the works of modern-dance masters like Paul Taylor and Glen Tetley. He retired in 2004, joining the artistic staff of Houston Ballet as ballet master and exhibiting great skill as a coach and teacher. Today, he thrives as director of the Orlando Ballet School in Florida.

Cecil C. Conner Jr.

When C.C. Conner arrived in 1995 to assume the position of managing director of Houston Ballet, the company’s deficit had ballooned to over $1 million. He quickly went to work to right the ship financially by retiring the company’s deficit; organizing a series of high-profile international tours to Hong Kong, London, Moscow, and Toronto; and tripling the company’s endowment. He began his career as a Wall Street lawyer at Goldman Sachs, and veered into the world of dance when he managed the modern-dance company of Pauline Koner and later The Joffrey Ballet. A charming

Southern gentleman impeccably dressed in his trademark bow tie, he has a deep knowledge and love of dance, and a winning way with the company’s donors. He finished his career in 2012 on a high note, raising over $40 million for Houston Ballet’s state-of-the-art Center for Dance in Houston’s downtown Theater District, and managing the Center’s construction to ensure that it was completed on time and on budget.

James Nelson

Executive Director James Nelson led Houston Ballet through one of the most challenging periods in its history: the year after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when the company found itself homeless after the Wortham Theater Center was damaged by flooding. He and the company’s production department went into overdrive, finding new theaters in which to perform, raising funds to pay for the increased expenses of dancing at alternate locations, and improvising in any number of ways so that the show would go on in the face of daunting obstacles. Nelson has deep roots at Houston Ballet. He began as a student at Houston Ballet Academy in the 1980s, danced with the compa-

ny in the 1990s, and became general manager in 2000. Since being named the company’s administrative leader in 2012, he has overseen major tours to Australia, Germany, New York, and Dubai.

Lisa Pinkham

Although she’s never on stage, Lisa Pinkham’s work is omnipresent when the curtain goes up at Houston Ballet. The Houston-based lighting designer has forged a highly productive relationship with Stanton Welch over the last decade, creating evocative lighting for his full-length stagings of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle and La Bayadére.

In September, her work on Houston Ballet’s mixed-repertory program Locally Grown, World Renowned was a master class in lighting design. Notably, her vision for the world premieres of Oliver Halkowich’s Following and Disha Zhang’s Elapse were highly theatrical, marvelously evocative, and infused the narratives of both works with stunning visual effects.

Harper Watters

Harper Watters signaled that he was a dancer

to watch when he won the Contemporary Dance Prize as a student in 2011 at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition in Switzerland. His star has continued to rise since he joined the professional company in 2011. He was promoted to soloist in 2017 and has since danced the leading male role of the Prince in The Nutcracker. But it is on social media that he has created his greatest sensation, sashaying to celebrity status in pink platform heels and giving his followers a dishy look at the backstage world of ballet in his online talk show The Pre-Show. He has enticed 165,000 followers on Instagram and generated coverage in the New York Times, which profiled him as one of the gay male ballet dancers who is rethinking masculinity. “If Wendy Williams and Beyoncé had a love child who they put in ballet,” he told the Times, “it would 100 percent be me.”

Andrew Edmonson has written about the arts for the Houston Chronicle, OutSmart, Houston Ballet News, and Playbill. He won the Award of Special Merit from the Texas Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

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ARTS

The Art of Fetish Ryan Hawk explores BDSM through his kinky creations.

By BILL ARNING | Photo by KEY WILSON

R

yan Hawk is an artist that one cannot stop paying attention to once he enters your consciousness. That moment occurred for me when he was still an undergraduate art student in Boston at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. I had gone as a visiting lecturer and critic at the invitation of Evan Garza, the Houston-based, extravagantly-gay curator (and until recently the shining light behind Rice University’s public-art program who is now curating the upcoming Texas Biennial).

Garza introduced me to Hawk, a star student who was making video, photography, and installation using simple painted props, motions, and his body. These optical situations seemed to mix everything I cared about—abstraction, media, queer bodies, and humor—in uniquely engaging ways.

“I coupled my interests in the histories and practices of performance, video, and minimalism; all of these art practices and their adjacent methodologies are typically historicized

56 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

outside of one another, when in fact they were all emerging simultaneously,” Hawk explains, clearly manifesting a highly ambitious mode of art making at a tender age.

Because he was youthful-looking and often nude, his art went viral on websites in ways beyond his control. Even in that powerlessness, Hawk found a way to make something

Untitled (pink puppy), production still from video, 2015; dimensions variable.

interesting out of the experience. “One of the videos, in particular, went viral on a few different fetish websites. Eventually I became very interested in the patriarchal gaze that had objectified me.” He met submissive guys on apps like recon, and invited them to make art together in ways that also served their fetishes and their desires to have their kinks witnessed.

In a series called foreplay (or director/subject), Hawk removed the image of his own body from the work in order to visualize the same representational objectification that he had experienced.

“I developed a methodology that was directly appropriated from BDSM that allowed me, within my own moral framework, to utilize submissive men in the work in a way that was mutually beneficial.” From water sports to fisting, Hawk’s anonymous collaborators helped him produce memorable visual artwork.

Men’s faces wrapped in black were shown on high-resolution flat screens, with only their eyes and mouths standing out from dark fields of leather. The men are being fisted out of the camera’s view, but that is implied as their eyes glaze over in ecstasy or their lips go slack from total release.

“In Untitled (heads), I decided to make that work after encountering so many submissive men online who were looking to be fisted. I was particularly interested in exploring languagebased connections between the asshole and the head and/or mouth—namely pejorative idioms such as “get your head out of your ass,” “shit head,” “ass licker,” etc., that are linked to a homosexual subject formation. The head/ ass connection is well-explored within critical theory, but I was also interested in the state-ofmind (i.e. “headiness”) induced by the act of fisting, and especially within the context of an artwork that is so methodologically informed.

Taking it one step further than Warhol, the isolated heads on the multiple monitors moan and groan like a collective choir; they are linked through the specific sex act which defines them as subjects.”

In 2017, as part of Houston’s Experimental Action Performance Festival, Hawk presented Lamenting, in which three normal-bodied middle-aged guys in boxer shorts wept theatrically for 45 minutes. (One had a prosthetic leg, an unplanned bonus that heightens the work’s power. This was a return to performance practices, less grueling than the earlier pieces using his own body. In this work, we are invited to reconsider the assumptions we make about over-40, seemingly straight men.

“If we think about who these men are within a social, cultural, and political context—Caucasian-American men over the age of 40—they are constituted at the top of the hierarchy of power. I became interested in formulating ways to undermine the larger pro-

death-drive, and the anticesses of social ordering. social for sometime now­— Crying men, for example, and all of these themes are a common trope, but are omnipresent in narit also something that is ratives of both horror and still lacking within the sci-fi. Queer people, like dominant cultural imagiother social and political nation.” minorities, have always The men’s faces as had to construct alternathey are fisted, and the tive and/or adjacent crying men, are both worlds for themselves due hyper-emotional in a way to being cast off as monthat Hawk has developed strous or as some kind extensively in the last two of threat.”For Sculpture years. For shows at the Month Houston, Hawk Lawndale Art Center and Untitled (tattoo study #2), 2019; custom is showing three flatat the Glassell School of tattooing on silicone rubber, silver screen-based video pieces Art, he made prosthetpiercing stud, synthetic hair, that play off their instalics—extra legs or grossly push-pin, ink, paper; 11.5”x 8”. lation site in The Silos on extended toes or noses, Sawyer. A swelling door accompanied by sad songs feels like a scene out of Poltergeist, but also and or the sound of sobbing. Given a tendency a Magrittian response to the very dramatic toward hyper-theatricality and surrealism stages created by the sharply vertical spaces. (with a dose of horror film and science-fiction), For Hawk’s first Houston show in a Hawk explored the way cinematic prosthetcommercial gallery (Gray Contemporary on ics affect us emotionally. The queer appetite Lake Street in Upper Kirby), Hawk is showfor sci-fi and horror genres has been muching a group of prosthetic skin samples that commented on. are bruised, hairy, over-tattooed, and oddly In Hawk’s assessment, “Queer Theory has pierced. Describing the work as “less queer,” in been concerned with notions of futurity, the

his mind, than most of his other work, Hawk points out he was raised by a mom who was herself very tattooed. She allowed him to get his ears pierced in third grade, and on his 18th birthday she paid for his first tattoo. The skin is conspicuously Caucasian and crowded with mismatched symbols to draw attention to the perverse histories of colonization that are part of tattooing.

I have followed Hawk’s trajectory through Boston and Austin as an ambitious artist that other global arts cities might follow. At MFAH’s über-prestigious CORE Residency Program, Hawk appreciates his hometown even more today. “The city now feels very different than the one that I grew up in, but not in a bad way. While I miss the cheap rent that Houston had pre-2010 or so, I’m proud of how the city has grown. Wherever I end up after my time at the Core Program, Houston will always be my home base.”

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by Sculpture Month Houston Where: SITE Gallery Houston, The Silos at Sawyer Yards, 1502 Sawyer St. Suite 400 When: Through November 30, 2019 Info: sculpturemonthhouston.org/events-2019

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www.facebook.com/Flanigan.psychotherapy OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 57

STAGE

He’s Got Character Dylan Godwin plays 40 roles in Alley Theatre’s production of Fully Committed.

By STE7EN FOSTER Photo by ALLYSON HUNTSMAN I didn’t see him come up behind me at the restaurant.

But Dylan Godwin is just that way—slippery, stealthy.

“Look at you,” he says, eyeing me up and down. “You got this whole Diane Sawyer thing goin’ on.”

I don’t know about all that, but it does reveal that for Godwin, people are observational targets. Subjects are monitored, categorized, memorized, and logged into his great big mental database for later use when he’s creating a character and slipping into a role. Then he adapts them, sculpting them into whatever shape he needs them to be.

You can see just a bit of how this works on a Facebook post for a 2017 Alley Theatre holiday production. In this humorous skit, Godwin is calling his mother to ask her what she wants for Christmas. The woman is matronly and kindly, and warm as spiced cider in a holiday mug. Then you notice she bears a striking resemblance to Godwin.

58 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

So good is he at portraying her that his real-life persona begins to feel fake by comparison. It’s as if the mother is real and Godwin is the artifice—and at that point you realize you’re watching a master at work. In the Whoopi Goldberg-on-Broadway vein. The likes of Anna Deavere Smith.

So there’s the proof that Godwin has at least one character in him. And in the Alley’s upcoming production of Fully Committed, which runs from November 26 through December 29, we’ll see a lot more of his characters—40, to be exact. If Godwin can pull this off, it’s almost crazy that they’re putting him on the smaller Neuhaus stage downstairs. How will all those people fit in that intimate space?

Fully Committed is a one-man (or one-woman) multi-headed hydra of a play, written so the Sam character can be played by an actor of either gender—or of no gender, for that matter.

Becky Mode’s briskly paced comedy follows one day in the life of a reservations receptionist at New York’s hottest restaurant during the holidays. (Think Rosie Cannonball in Montrose, where it’s still hard to reserve a table.)

During the play’s 63 pages of wall-to-wall dialogue, Godwin will bring his 40 characters to life onstage. There’s the socialite Mrs. Vandevere, the put-upon hostess, the volatile chef, the hysterical Mrs. Sebag, the “Laryngitis Guy,” Gwyneth Paltrow’s assistant, a prep cook from the Dominican Republic, and even Sofia Vergara. And that’s just eight of the army of characters who work at or call in to the restaurant where tables are more coveted than positions on a Democratic debate stage.

Elizabeth Bunch carried her solo show all by herself. So did Todd Waite. But they both just played one character. Now it’s Godwin’s turn. He understudied Waite for the Alley’s Santaland Diaries, but it would take a nuclear holocaust for Waite to miss a show. So Godwin has gone pretty much untested, except for the odd outing where he performed for the Alley staff during the Santaland run.

“I knew I had it in me,” says Godwin, before immediately confessing, “Yes, I’m nervous as hell.” He’s a long way from his humble beginnings in Athens, Texas, with its surprisingly robust theater scene. This is something altogether different.

“This . . . this is a beast,” he says, his eyes opening a little wider (in terror?). “Forty characters, 63 pages long, no breathing room.

Santaland has one narrative line going through it. This is a guy answering phones. Every time he answers the phone, it’s a different character.

So the narrative is shifted through 40 different

people instead of one continuous thought.”

Godwin has had his share of roles, in plays both whip-smart (Good People) and withering (Crimes of the Heart). But no matter the quality of the play or size of the role, he is consistently called out by critics. Houstonia magazine calls Godwin “one of the best and most versatile actors working in Houston now.”

“I draw from my own experience. I extrapolate qualities from this person or that person and repurpose them into something else,” he explains. “You have to make sure you can sustain it for that many shows. You can’t make some crazy vocal choice that you can’t sustain,” he says, demonstrating a gravelly bass before returning to his own speaking voice.

“There’s one character that’s like a helmethaired New York socialite. So I’ve been looking at all the helmet-haired New York socialites, [thinking about] how I can mold them into this sort of singular force that’s familiar to me.” (In addition to teaching at TUTS and directing at HSPVA, one of Godwin’s side gigs is working with the Junior League on their annual gala, so he should have the whole helmet-hair thing covered.)

“MORE THAN ANYTHING, GODWIN IS A CHARACTER ACTOR. HE FINDS THINGS OTHER PEOPLE DON’T NECESSARILY SEE. HE BRINGS SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING DIFFERENT, SOMETHING UNIQUE TO HIS ROLES. I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYBODY ON STAGE LIKE HIM.” —actor Adam Gibbs

“Dylan’s a leading man, for sure,” says actor Adam Gibbs, who’s shared the stage with Godwin several times. “But more than anything, he’s a character actor. He finds things other people don’t necessarily see. He brings something new, something different, something unique to his roles. I’ve never seen anybody onstage like him.”

Godwin has known Fully Committed’s director, Brandon Weinbrenner (The Humans),

for years. His husband went to college with Godwin, so they have a relationship that’s both personal and professional. It gives them a shorthand.

“Dylan’s got his work cut out for him with Fully Committed,” admits Weinbrenner. “I am so thankful to have as hard-working and diligent an actor as Dylan. In fact, over the past couple weeks, Dylan has been leaving me voicemail messages on my cell phone as his different characters. So he will call as Jean-Claude the maître d’ on one day, and Carolann RosensteinFishburn the next. It’s been so fun.”

The way Godwin approaches his roles is both grand and granular. He not only sees them in terms of their physicality—the way they move, the way they take up a particular space— but he tries to capture where that person is in their own timeline.

“I always try and connect from a personal space first,” he explains. “[What if] this person were standing in front of a white scrim and I were to backlight them and just see their silhouette? What would I know about that person from that silhouette? That’s kind of where it starts for me. Now fill in that shape, and figure out how that shape causes you to move.”

Once the seed is in the ground, growth occurs.

“What’s interesting about this play is there’s this extra layer where you’re answering your phone and you’re in the office. And then on the other end of the phone is this Manhattan socialite. And maybe she’s got a martini in her hand. So she’s in her own world doing her own thing. You’re on one end doing this, but you may catch the other person painting her fingernails, whereas he’s over here, trying to take the message.

“To be able to do that, you have to learn to know these people you’re portraying intimately. The playwright gives the character, but it’s the actor who gives that character life.”

Godwin is in his second year as an Alley Theatre company member, though he’s been working there for a decade. His stage debut was in a production of Our Town. (Doesn’t it seem like Our Town is everybody’s debut?) At a young-looking 35, he is the youngest member of the venerable Houston company.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all morning,” he demurs. “And I just came from therapy, so that’s saying something.”

Godwin’s been in therapy for three years.

Although his parents did take him to a therapist when he was younger, his mother sussed out that young Dylan wasn’t really into the whole introspection thing. ➝ OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 59

DYLAN GODWIN | CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

“You want to get outta here and go shopping?” his mother asked after an early session.

That therapist is still waiting for their return.

“I’m a big advocate for therapy. It has changed my life,” Godwin admits, settling into one of the restaurant’s well-used sofas. “Just discussing things with someone, when you know you’re not going to upset or hurt their feelings, it frees up your brain in a way that’s incredible. For an actor, that’s gold.”

“Seven years ago, my father died suddenly.

Massive heart attack, out of the blue,” Godwin says, his voice quick and clipped, like a snap of the fingers. “I was in the middle of doing Life Could Be a Dream at Stages, and I got a call.

‘You need to come home right now. Your dad’s died.’ So I went home, handled the funeral, stayed a day, and then came back and went right into tech rehearsal for the show.”

His eyes seem to lock on something—not so much a memory, but more like a discovery?

“What’s crazy about that was at my age, my dad looked exactly like I did at this age. And I’m in this play that takes place in the ’60s, which is when my mom and dad first met. And I’m in all these ’60s clothes and, looking back on it now, I

couldn’t really see it at the time because I was so lost in grief, but it was really this wonderful, cosmic way of mourning my dad as my dad.”

And this is where that line gets blurred— where one thing begins and then turns into something entirely different. A new person, even. A different person.

“I would pour what I was feeling into that, and even though [the Stages production] was this light jukebox musical, there’s still some pathos there. So I was able to pour that in, to focus on my work. After that, for about six or seven months, I was in a dark, depressed phase because Dad’s death was never a probability that I considered. It’s weird when you lose someone that close to you. It’s like there’s less DNA of you on the planet, and all of a sudden you’re aware of how mortal you are. It took me awhile to shake out of it and kind of actualize it and move on.

“I always think about it this way: until someone’s experienced a loss like that, it’s hard to understand it. And it’s the one thing I’ll have in common with a ton of other people. Death is this great unifying factor. It’s a kind of melancholy way to think about it. But it’s a fraternity.

You get the most comfort from the people that

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And sometimes it will feel like it was 10 years ago, and sometimes it will feel like it was just yesterday.”

Godwin looks off and, for just a moment, watches the barista behind the counter, and then the man at a small table in the corner hovering over his laptop. They’re all strangers to him, but there’s a connection there, too.

A connection that every one of us shares, to some extent—no matter how different we are sexually, politically, racially. There is a strand between us that, if you look, you can sometimes see.

“You know,” Godwin says, bringing his gaze back. “It’s funny how the brain grieves and deals with it.”

He smiles.

“But it’s also a beautiful thing.”

What: Fully Committed When: November 26–December 29 December 5: ActOUT, a pre-show mixer for our LGBTQ friends Where: Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Avenue Info: alleytheatre.org

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MOVIES

LGBTQ Films in the Spotlight Houston Cinema Arts Festival showcases the work of nine queer directors.

By ANDREW EDMONSON

The acclaimed lesbian love story Portrait of a Lady on Fire will close the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival on Monday, November 18, at 7 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

T

he Houston Cinema Arts Festival returns for its eleventh season November 14–18, spotlighting nine queer filmmakers ranging from pioneers like Barbara Hammer to up-andcoming stars like Ja’Tovia Gary.

One of the highlights of the festival will be the Houston premiere of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, winner of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival’s Queer Palm award. That prestigious award recognizes stellar films depicting LGBTQ themes. It will screen on Monday, November 18, at 7:00 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Set in France and directed by Céline Sciamma, the

18th-century lesbian love story has won rapturous reviews. Awarding the film a five-star rating and praising its “burning desires and flashes of Hitchcock,” Peter Bradshaw, of the Guardian of London, enthused, “Céline Sciamma’s gripping 18th-century story of obsession demonstrates a new mastery of classical style.”

Writing in Variety, Peter Debruge observed, “One of four female-made features to premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Portrait dares to engage directly with the questions of representation and gender that seem to have flummoxed the film industry of late, broadening its focus to ➝ OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 67

HOUSTON CINEMA ARTS FESTIVAL | CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

the subject of womanhood itself at a time documented almost exclusively by men. Though this gorgeous, slow-burn lesbian romance works strongly enough on a surface level, one can hardly ignore the fact, as true then as it is now, that the world looks different when seen through a woman’s eyes.”

The Giverny Document: “A multi-textured cinematic poem”

Ja’Tovia Gary takes center stage on Sunday, November 17, at 1:00 p.m. in the shortfilm showcase Around the World in a Day: Experimental Cinema Now. Hailed as one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film, she is a co-founder of The New Negress Film Society, a core collective of black female filmmakers whose priority is to create community and spaces for support, exhibition, and consciousness-raising. Her work seeks to liberate the distorted histories through which black life is often viewed. After living in Brooklyn for eighteen years, she recently relocated back to Dallas.

Around the World will feature Gary’s experimental film The Giverny Document.

The work was shot on location in Harlem and in Claude Monet’s historic gardens in Giverny, France. In one section of the film, she takes to the streets of Harlem to ask women a simple question: Do you feel safe? This segment is interspersed with 1970s archival footage of jazz legend Nina Simone. Gary’s website describes the work as “a multi-textured cinematic poem that meditates on the safety and bodily autonomy of Black women.”

Gary’s film won the Moving Ahead Award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland last August, with the jury observing, “Gary’s film is a contemplation of the body, of blackness, performance, film form, and political urgency. A rigorous and exciting measure of the capacity of cinema to act as a radical craft, the film works across disciplines and history as revolutionary art.”

New Festival Director Explores New Themes

Over the last decade, and under the leadership of founding artistic director Richard Herskowitz, the Houston Cinema Arts Festival has carved a niche for itself with its focus on films by and about artists and the artistic process. The festival’s new artistic director, Jessica Green, arriving in Houston from the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, has expanded the focus of the 2019 festival to include two intriguing themes.

The festival’s “Moonlanding 50” series will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 expedition to the moon with six films exploring the repercussions of that singular moment. Space Dogs, which receives its 68 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

Ja’Tovia Gary’s film The Giverny Document won the Moving Ahead Award at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It screens at Rice Media Center on Sunday, November 17 at 1:00 pm.

North American premiere on Friday, November 15, at 8:00 p.m. at Rice Media Center, chronicles the story of Laika, a stray dog who was the first living being to be sent into space.

The festival has joined forces with NASA to produce CineSpace 2019, a short-film contest judged by Texas film director Richard Linklater that will screen on Saturday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m. at Rice Media Center.

Queer Cowboys and Lesbian Trailblazers

“Yee-Haw Agenda” is another festival theme the festival’s press release describes as “a celebration of rodeo riders, cowboys, and westerns—already firmly baked into the global popular consciousness—with a focus on diverse representations.”

Michael D. Robinson curates a program entitled “Brokeback: A Shorts Film Program” that looks at gay incarnations of the cowboy.

Inspired by the seminal 2005 cowboy love-story film Brokeback Mountain, the one-hour program features works by Kate Horsfield, Barbara Hammer, Daniel Baer, and Adrian Garcia Gomez, among others.

“With this program, I’m interested in two concepts: native queer Southernness and Hollywood aesthetics of what a queer cowboy looks like,” comments Robinson, who is 24 and the co-artistic director of QFest, Houston’s LGBTQ film festival. “The title refers to one of the most famous of the Hollywood queer-cowboy narratives. But I wanted to tease away from this what, exactly, is seen as more innate, and what’s a replication of Hollywood aesthetics.

“Hammer’s 1969 short film Death of a Marriage is made as she’s reckoning to leave her husband and pursue a completely different life. [The film] situates itself as a time capsule of sorts,” Robinson notes. “It’s the queer country before going into the queer city. Her later films during this period are a mix of queer exploration and queer activism, examining community in a more urban understanding.

“Daniel Baer’s 1986 short film, Horse Dreams in BBQ Country, follows a California native who moves to Texas with his partner,” Robinson continues. “The conversation between Western and Southern is an important one, and really links to this idea of ‘native’ queer Southernness versus the aesthetics of the queer cowboy.”

Brokeback: A Shorts Film Program will screen on Saturday, November 16, at 12:30 p.m. at Rice Cinema, and is followed by a reading and conversation with Houston-based writer Josh Inocéncio.

What: Houston Cinema Arts Film Festival When: Nov. 14–18 Where: MFAH, Rice Media Center, and other local venues Info: www.cinemahtx.org/ Andrew Edmonson has written about the arts for the Houston Chronicle, OutSmart, Houston Ballet News, and Playbill. He won the Award of Special Merit from the Texas Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

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MUSIC

Setting the Tone for Queer Music Space Kiddettes give local LGBTQ artists room to grow.

By LOURDES ZAVALETA Photo by KARO CANTU

It’s Thursday night on the Washington corridor, and Pearl Bar Houston is enticing guests inside with the aroma of vegan cooking, a vintage clothing pop-up shop, and a DJ set with great bass.

Inside, the bar’s dim lounge is lit by brightorange Halloween decorations, and three microphones stand in the center of the dance floor. People from all walks of life mingle and enjoy the ambiance, waiting for the show to begin. It’s nearly time for Abundantly Queer, a monthly LGBTQ artist showcase hosted by Space Kiddettes and Stoo.

After returning from San Francisco Pride and all of its bar-hopping in June, Julie Mabry, owner of Space City’s only lesbian bar, grew inspired to expose her predominately queer female patrons to a wider range of LGBTQ entertainment.

“Older generations in our community only had men’s and women’s bars,” Mabry recalls.

“But this is changing. The new queer perspective is much more encompassing to all types of people. It’s amazing to see that, and to be able to share that with Houston’s lesbian community.”

Mabry called the folks who she knew could create the perfect solution, and in September Abundantly Queer was born.

The Making of an LGBTQ Artist Showcase

Queer creatives Trent Lira and Devin Will, also known as the Houston synth-pop duo Space Kiddettes, met queer-femme performer 70 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

Trent Lira (l) and Devin Will Stoo nearly three years ago. Early in each of their musical careers, the artists joined forces to host Adventures of Space City, a recurring concert series at Leon’s Lounge.

When Mabry contacted Space Kiddettes (who had organized several successful concerts at Pearl) about hosting their own monthly show at her bar, the duo again partnered with Stoo to make Abundantly Queer happen. For this showcase, Space Kiddettes and Stoo give other LGBTQ artists a space to promote their work every second Thursday of the month.

“We perform our own work here and there,”

Stoo says, “but the mission for Abundantly Queer is for artists that don’t normally get showcased in the city to have a space to share their magic.”

Will says the idea for the showcase stemmed from the difficulties that new musicians had in finding opportunities to perform.

“When we were first starting out, people were not checking for us,” she recalls. “We had to consistently put ourselves out there, and it wasn’t easy. Now that we have these spaces, we want to uplift other queer artists.”

It’s difficult for local queer artists to gain popularity in Houston, Lira admits, because

“the city lacks the infrastructure to support us.” But shows like Abundantly Queer make a difference, especially when LGBTQ folks support one another.

The first two Abundantly Queer events were themed Sleepover and Haunted House, respectively, and saw performers from across the city showcase drag, spoken word, live music, performance art, and more.

In addition to the performances, each showcase features an Abundantly Queer cocktail, vegan treats by Sinfull Kitchen, and a popup shop by Audly Creative, a local business that sells vintage clothes, toys, and face painting.

The next Abundantly Queer occurs in December. If you’re interested in performing or more information, email spacekiddettes@ gmail.com or send a direct message to @stooizm on social media.

Non-Stop Ironic Cabaret

If you can’t get enough of Space Kiddettes, Abundantly Queer isn’t the only recurring event the duo hosts. In October, Lira and Will launched Non-Stop Ironic Cabaret, a monthly variety show that features standup, comedy, book readings, sketches, and more, at The Secret Group.

Queer-femme artist Stoo joins the Space Kiddettes to host Abundantly Queer, a monthly LGBTQ artist showcase at Pearl Bar Houston.

Non-Stop Ironic Cabaret is also where fans can watch episodes of Space Kiddettes’ new web series, Domestic Adventures, which shows the bandmates navigating wacky scenarios. In episode one, the two get dropped off at an undisclosed location and hilariously try to make it back into the city.

“Trent and I have so many ideas, so we don’t limit ourselves to just music,” Will says, noting that the duo also has a podcast, and

had been organizing Houston’s Drag Queen Storytime until March 2019. “But there’s not always a space for all of these ideas, so we have to create them ourselves.”

When it comes to Space Kiddettes’ concepts, the duo always tries to see things through, Lira says. “The reason we keep creating things is because people keep asking us to,” he says. “We believe if you want to see things happen, you have the power to make them happen. Additionally, if someone is doing something that you like, you should go out and support them.”

Lira points to Smoke Break, an alternative monthly drag show at Guava Lamp, to further emphasize the creativity that Space City harbors. “There’s so many cool things going on in Houston,” he says. “More people need to go out and see them.”

The next Non-Stop Ironic Cabaret takes place in December, and will be followed by a DJ set by Space Kiddettes.

Releasing a Mixtape

Two years after the debut of their first body of work, an EP called Livingspace // Headspace, Space Kiddettes will release Deadspace on November 20. That mixtape includes three ➝

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QUEER MUSIC | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 71

remastered tracks from the first EP, two new songs, and five collaborations with local and national artists.

Deadspace features sounds by Stoo, Kam Franklin, Tee Vee, Hank Honey, Swimwear Department, and Kirrrrby the DJ.

The Deadspace album cover was designed by Devin Will. She created the artwork by stacking multiple Space Kiddettes images in Photoshop Mix to make its blurred and glitchy effects.

“We’re incredibly proud of the material that’s on the mixtape, and think its some of the best we’ve ever written,” Lira says. “The collaborations are insane, and many of them are left-field for both us and the other artists. I don’t think anybody is going to see it coming.”

Stoo, who is featured rapping on the track “P.S.A.,” says the song was the inspiration for the character Stoo embodies in their debut album Supersuit, which dropped in July. “Every single time I work with Space Kiddettes, they inspire me to show more of my truth,” Stoo says. “As you can tell, I love them both so much.”

Space Kiddettes will host a Deadspace release party at White Oak Music Hall on November 19. The event will feature sets by each of their collaborators (excluding national artist Kam Franklin), and live accompaniment for the Space Kiddettes will be provided by The Body Speaks.

“We promise you’re going to hear our songs a lot differently,” Lira says, “The sound is going to be fuller, in your face, and staging is going to be brand new. People are gonna get their life.”

In the future, Space Kiddettes hopes to perform music full-time and around the U.S. The duo says they will spend next year focusing on their variety shows, promoting their music, and touring in venues outside of Texas.

For tickets to the Deadspace release show, visit tinyurl.com/deadspacerelease. Follow Space Kiddettes on all social media platforms @SpaceKiddettes.

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Q & A

Skating through the Glass Ceiling Adam Rippon discusses his new memoir on making history as an openly gay Olympian.

By DAVID GOLDBERG

Y

ou likely know Adam Rippon as 2018’s chicest Olympian athlete, after he scored a bronze medal for figure skating and then went on to win his season of Dancing with the Stars. But the out, unapologetic competitor also has a fierce sense of humor, which he displays with glee on his YouTube channel in the upcoming mobile series This Day in Useless Celebrity History—and, perhaps most spectacularly, in his new memoir Beautiful on the Outside.

Before hitting the Montrose Center last month to celebrate the launch of his book, Rippon spoke with OutSmart about shifting from the rink to the writing process.

David Goldberg: You made a major public splash at the 2018 Olympics. Are you taking any lessons from that for your first book tour?

Adam Rippon: I really have been wanting to start to focus on a project, almost in the same way that I was focusing on my skating career.

That’s why I started working so much after the Olympics, because I wanted to find out what I liked. Skating was my passion, and what I loved the most, and I was able to dedicate myself and be my best at it. In this next chapter, I want to find what I like the most and be able to be as good as I can be at it.

Many influencers can’t really do anything. But you and [fellow Olympian] Gus Kenworthy are athletes with crazy work ethics. It’s interesting to see how you make this new job work for you.

I talked with Gus a few days ago, and I told him that I was so proud of what he was doing [as an actor] on American Horror Story. I know how tough it is, because it’s so weird to go from being completely focused on one thing to trying to change up your whole career. And it’s what I’ve been trying to do. Yes, it does feel like a lot of influencers are incredibly popular because they have really great personalities, but it doesn’t seem like they do a lot. People really like watching them do nothing. It’s cool!

74 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

I follow a few influencers, and I like watching them go throughout their day, because they’re funny and they seem fun to hang out with. But I do have a work ethic. I do love working. I crave it, and it’s how I thrive as a person—by working hard. I love to engage with people and make people laugh, but I want to find something I can work really hard on. When I go to bed, I can say I did a really good job today.

Writing a memoir is so non-linear, because you never know when you’ll hit on something that freaks you out, or unlocks an unvisited trauma. What were the biggest challenges with this?

I don’t know why I thought this would be easy.

I’ve written an email, and it can’t be much harder than that! It was. When I started writing it, I didn’t know where to start, so I wrote down a bunch of stories that I thought were funny. I went from there. I had a great team that helped me put everything together and organize my thoughts. The times that were hardest for me to talk about were the times when I didn’t feel that hot about myself. It wasn’t as much revisiting a trauma as it was like visiting someone who you’ve wished you could shake. I wanted to be like, “Get out of this moment!” “What were you doing with these people?” “What were you doing?” “Get it together!” It was frustrating to write about the times when I felt like I just couldn’t get it together.

It’s hard to look back, because life is about just coming out of one closet after another.

It’s hard to look back on times when you were more consumed with shame.

When I was coming out, I thought my friends would think I lied to them. But they didn’t.

They were understanding that coming out is tough. But to go back and to even think about how that person thought—and I’m talking about myself as a younger person—it’s hard, because you forget how everything you did was through a process of How will people perceive this? As I’ve gotten older, I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing, and want to be as

much of a role model as somebody who says the F-word every five seconds on Instagram.

The Internet is permanent, so I want to do something that I’ll always look back on and say, “This will age well, it’s funny, it’s light, and it’s not mean-spirited toward anyone.” I think of it from the perspective of “Will people be entertained by this?” And before, it was “Will people perceive this in some way, or think of me differently?” I don’t go down that road anymore.

Thank God.

I mean, who has the energy? If anything, that probably burns a lot of calories—all the worrying. That was probably the only positive from it.

When I think back to 2018, I think about you and Gus Kenworthy busting open a lot of barriers, just in terms of gay people in the spotlight, and the narratives that go around us. What you pushed was this idea that you were having fun, you had a sense of humor, and you were in on the narrative. You weren’t just clinging to the usual coming-out narratives. Since you came onto the scene in the Olympics, what do you think about what’s getting better or worse about gay people on the scene?

The one thing I think about the Olympics is that Gus and I are two different kinds of people. But I think it was so great for these two very different people to be together in one event, and be friends and champions of each other in this same sort of realm. It’s like on a TV show where there’s three basic people: the one black person, the one Asian, and the one gay person. And then they check all the boxes.

For the first time, two of the most outspoken and watched athletes were two gay people. It shakes up that narrative of what people will respond to, or how much diversity people will actually accept, and I think people really crave things that are entertaining, no matter what they are or who they are. When I was asked about being the first out gay Olympian, I was like, that can’t be. But I think we really are in

sort of a renaissance [where coming out is] becoming such an uninteresting bullet point. That’s the goal. If you’re good at what you do, you can do what you do—and who you are is [about] as interesting as what color eyes you have.

Another big part of this moment is seeing gay people championing one another, and not feeling like we have to compete or be nervous about being criticized for going too far.

If you think back like ten years ago, if someone told you that someone is going to visit Speaker Pelosi in D.C., and they are going to be a person with a beard and long hair that’s in a bun, and they’re going to have a boatneck shirt and a gown and platform boots.

You’re like, “What? That will never go over.” And—I’m not finished—they’re going to be an out person who is HIV-positive. You’re like, “This is enough.” And it happened with Jonathan Van Ness, being exactly who they are. Now, we really look up to people who are authentic to themselves. We look up to someone who lives authentically. At the end of the day, we’re all so alike and so similar that we can’t let our differences hold us back.

Many people in the world want to write a book, and never do. You just did it, and that’s a huge achievement. What comes next? What other dreams and goals are buzzing around for you?

Of course, being the athlete I am, I love awards. So I’ve already told everybody we need to submit my audiobook for a Grammy, so that’s what I want to be focusing on. She wants to be Grammy-nominated!

The singing voice, we’re still working on it. But the speaking voice! Bitch, we’re trying! I told everyone and they were laughing, and I was like, I’m dead serious. Submit my book, right f--king now. I enjoy my YouTube channel, and we just filmed the second season of Break the Ice, so we’ll have eight more guests on the show in the next few weeks. And in the future . . .I’ve always been an entertainer, I love entertaining people, I love making people laugh. I really want to find some show where being funny would be my job.

I know something is out there, but in the meantime I’m going to be hustling and grinding for that Grammy.

“IF YOU’RE GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO, YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU DO – AND [BEING GAY] IS ABOUT AS INTERESTING AS WHAT COLOR EYES YOU HAVE.” —Adam Rippon

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 75

Tuesday, October 22

OutSmart honored its annual Gayest & Greatest Readers’ Choice Awards winners with a ceremony at ReBar Houston. Presented by Avenue 360 Health & Wellness and the Houston Health Department, the event featured complimentary hors d’oeuvres by David Alcorta Catering.

Presented by

76 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

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OUT THERE Photos by DALTON DEHART & EDGARDO AGUILAR

October 26–28, 2019

From Friday through Sunday nights, Stanford Street was closed for Eagle Houston’s annual Halloween Street Party. The event featured a DJ, drag performances, and a cash prize for the winner of Saturday night’s costume party, which was hosted by Blackberri.

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Saturday, October 19

The 40th annual Fantasy Ball was held at Neon Boots Dancehall & Saloon. Originally hosted in a River Oaks apartment in the late ‘70s, the Fantasy Ball has grown to become one of the best Halloween parties 78

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OUT THERE

Saturday, October 12

Dozens celebrated National Coming Out Day at Neon Boots Dancehall & Saloon. OutReach United’s Houston Coming Out Weekend party featured entertainment, auctions, and dancing, with proceeds to benefit these LGBTQ organizations: The Montrose Center, the Dalton DeHart Photographic Foundation, Out for Education, Combined Arms LGBTQ Veterans Group, and M.E.N. Incorporated.

Photos by DALTON DEHART & EDGARDO AGUILAR

October 11-13, 2019

Houston’s leather community spent Gear, Leather, Uniform, Etc. (G.L.U.E.) Weekend, at Ripcord and George’s.

The three-day meetup, which celebrates leather, fetish, and kink, raises funds for local LGBTQ causes such as the Montrose Center’s Youth Rapid Rehousing program.

Photos by MARK McCRAY

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 79

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WEDDING GUIDE

By JENNY BLOCK | Photos by MARLA CARDENAS

FLYING in LOVE Brett Ximines and Kevin Nichols wed after meeting thousands of feet in the sky.

You might say Brett Ximenes and Kevin Nichols give special meaning to United Airlines’ “Fly the Friendly Skies” motto. The two United Airlines flight attendants met two years ago while working the same flight to Chicago O’Hare, and it wasn’t long before the two became more than just friends.

Despite both living in Houston for over 23 years, the two had never flown together before. “I was the purser on the flight, and Kevin was working in the back. We had three legs that day,” Brett recalls.

On the first leg, they had a medical emergency that demanded the crew’s full attention. But by the second leg, Brett says the sparks began to fly. “By the third leg, it was on. We pretty much never looked back after that.”

Their first date was lunch right around Kevin’s birthday. “The next day after our date, he was the first thing I thought of when I woke up,” Brett admits. “I knew I was in trouble.

I knew I was falling for him already.”

Brett (53) hails from Colorado Springs, and Kevin (47) is from Baltimore, though they both now call Houston home. Brett says he knew right away that Kevin was the man for him. “I dropped him off from a lunch date. As he walked away, I said out loud, ‘I’m going to marry that man.’”

That was only three months into their relationship. “Sure enough! I realized that no one would ever love me more.

He was the one!”

It was Kevin who proposed, and he chose Brenner’s on the Bayou as the venue. As far as Brett knew, they were simply there with their mothers (who were in town for Mother’s Day). It would be the first time their ➝

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WEDDING GUIDE

moms would meet. “Of course I said yes!” Brett explains. “My mother has to tell me what he said after he went down on one knee. All I saw was his handsome face after that point.” Then, on March 31, 2019, the two were married in Houston at The Bell Tower on 34th.

Brett says one of the most wonderful moments of their big day was waiting to walk down the aisle. “I was sitting in the back room with my niece, who was the flower girl. She was getting nervous, and I was just so excited to walk down and wait for Kevin. I went out and looked through the crack in the giant wooden doors. I could see the room was full of friends and family, and so much love. I could see our officiant waiting for me up there as the violinist was playing. No one could see me, but I could see all of them. It was very exciting. It was a moment that I will carry with me forever.”

That moment is forever etched in Kevin’s mind as well, as one of the high points of the day. “I saw all my family and friends there for us on our wedding day. I knew how much we were loved. Everyone turned around as they opened the doors, and I came out with my mom to see everyone there surrounding us.”

That special moment was made all the more grand by the gorgeous venue and glorious florals designed by Chad Cornwall, founder and owner of Flower Power Productions. “We wanted only white flowers, so we made his job a little hard,” Brett jokes. “He came through, and in such a big way. They were just very special and elaborate, and we got so many compliments afterwards and everyone wanted to take one home.” Using as many LGBTQ vendors as possible was important to both Brett and Kevin as a way of supporting the community. And having someone who was both gay and married as their officiant was particularly important to the pair as well. So they asked their friend Rick Dickson to do the honors.

“It was not long ago when same-sex couples could not get married in the State of Texas. So to have the same rights as every other person 82

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in love was not lost on us on our day. We were very grateful to both Rick Dickson and his husband, Luis Morales Lopez, for being there and for being a part of it.”

The day had a special twist, as March 31, 2019, was Brett’s father’s 81st birthday. The wedding reception included a special cake and song, and his father could not have been any more thrilled. Pulling off those two surprises was really the only challenge the two faced when it came to the day of the wedding. “Everything went very smoothly,” Brett says, “and everything looked fantastic.” That goes double for the cake—or rather, cakes. The grooms opted for one small square cake with a sweet topper alongside a tower made of individual square white cakes with tiny black bows for

each guest. The effect was stunning.

Brett says that if he had to pick just one special thing to share about his husband, it would be “just how much Kevin makes me a better man every day. He always looks out for me. He always looks out for us, even when I don’t realize it initially. I adore him, and loved him almost from day one. There is a quiet to him, a stillness about him, even though his mind is going a million miles a minute.”

Brett adds that he is forever grateful that Cupid came his way, and hit him hard. “I had to wait almost a lifetime for the man of my dreams. He finally showed up, and he’s never disappointed me.” Since the big day, Brett says that being married has given him a sense of peacefulness, “a comfort knowing that someone you love to your core loves you back, and is there every day you wake up and start the day.”

Kevin’s love for Brett is equally apparent, saying that he truly appreciates “the way Brett looks out for us. It’s a way of showing his love.

It’s a way of showing me how much he cares about me and thinks about me all the time. I have never felt this much love. I have never been loved so much before. I am a very lucky man.”

True love is as simple to see as it is rare to find. Brett and Kevin are lucky men indeed.

They met in the friendly skies and found a love that is clearly destined to soar.

WANT TO TELL YOUR STORY? Email us at letters@outsmartmagazine.com

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davidalcorta.net david@davidalcorta.net OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 83

QUEER QUOTES Compiled by BLASE DISTEFANO

Derren Brown (mentalist/illusionist/author)

(The New Yorker, 10/7/19, Adam Green)

Re: .

The Secret Derren Brown (seen here on The Late Late Show with James Corden): how long did he avoid the subject of sex?

I

IF YOU HAVE ONLY ONE SMILE IN YOU, GIVE IT TO THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE. Maya Angelou

n the opening monologue of Brown’s New York show [Derren Brown: Secret], he says, “My story was that I had a secret, a big, dark secret I couldn’t possibly tell anyone. . . . I presumed that I was gay when I was 15, but I didn’t come out till I was 31. Which is a very long time to be avoiding the subject of sex. No one must ever know. Which is silly, because when you do eventually come out, you realize no one gives a f--k. Truly, nobody cares. Which is a little disappointing, something of an anticlimax. All the things about ourselves that we think are so terrible—to other people, it’s just a bit more information about us. We’d worry a lot less about what other people think of us if we realized how seldom they do.”

Warren Hurst S

1722 W Alabama Street, Houston, TX 77098 713.592.9300 | lifesmiles.us

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(Advocate.com, 10//22/19, Jacob Ogles)

evier County [Tennessee] Commissioner Warren Hurst recited a list of societal woes during a hearing on establishing the [local] community as a “gun sanctuary,” according to WVLT-TV. He also decried that white men in America were losing their rights.

“We got a queer running for president, if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get,” Hurst said. “Look what we got running for president in the Democratic party. We can go over here to Hoss’ jail and get better people out of there than those running for democratic to be president of the United States.”

“I’m not prejudice, but by golly, a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day,” he said.

Alice Walker

O

luwaseyi Omooba, who was set to portray Celie in a production of the musical [The Color Purple], was fired from the show after [an] actor shared a 2014 Facebook post in which Omooba called homosexuality a sin, saying it’s “legal” but not “right.” She also stated her belief that people are not born gay.

Omooba said she plans to sue the Leicester Curve over her firing and the Global Artists Agency for dropping her as a client. The daughter of a prominent British anti-LGBTQ activist, Omooba contends she has suffered discrimination because of her Christian beliefs.

[Alice] Walker sent a letter to the producer, Scott Sanders, and authorized him to share it on Facebook. She expressed “heartfelt compassion” for Omooba, then explained how she came to create Celie.

Celie “is based on the life of my grandmother, Rachel, a kind and loving woman brutally abused by my grandfather. . . . It is safe to say, after a frightful life serving and obeying abusive men, who raped in place of ‘making love,’ my grandmother,

(Advocate.com, 10/14/19, Trudy Ring)

Authentic Alice Walker is the author of The Color Purple, in which the main character, Celie, is drawn to her husband’s female lover.

like Celie, was not attracted to men,” Walker wrote.

“She was, in fact, very drawn to my grandfather’s lover, a beautiful woman who was kind to her, the only grown person who ever seemed to notice how remarkable and creative she was. In giving Celie the love of this woman, in every way love can be expressed, I was clear in my intention to demonstrate that she too, like all of us, deserved to be seen, appreciated, and deeply loved by someone who saw her as whole and worthy.”

“Playing the role of ‘Celie’ while not believing in her right to be loved, or to express her love in any way she chooses, would be a betrayal of women’s right to be free,” she concluded. “As an elder, I urge all of us to think carefully about what I am saying, even as you, Oluwaseyi Omooba, sue the theatre company for voiding your contract.

This is just an episode in your life; your life, your work, and your growth will continue in the real world. A world we must make safe for women and children, female and male. And the greatest freedom of all is the freedom to be your authentic self.”

Judith Light WALKER - FACEBOOK; LIGHT - SCOTT KOWALCHYK/CBS; BROWN - TERENCE PATRICK/CBS; HURST - FACEBOOK

(Vanity Fair, 11/19)

The Proust Questionnaire is seen on the back page of Vanity Fair magazine. The following are just two of the many questions asked of actress Judith Light: What would you consider your greatest achievement?

Thirty-eight years of marriage, and advocacy for HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community.

Who are your heroes in real life?

Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Keller, Gandhi, Nelson Mandala, Eleanor Roosevelt, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Stephen Hawking, Buckminster Fuller, Ella Baker, the LGBTQ+ community.

A True Ally Judith Light (pictured here on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert): are we her heroes?

OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 85

GROOVE OUT

By GREGG SHAPIRO

Your Autumn 2019 LGBTQ+ Playlist Freddie Mercury, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Mark Ronson, and more.

I

t’s not unreasonable to wonder what the late Freddie Mercury might have thought about Never Boring (Mercury/ Universal), a handsomely packaged “solo box set” consisting of three CDs, a Blu-ray disc, and a DVD. The legendary queer Queen front-man only had one proper solo album, 1985’s Mr. Bad Guy (represented here in a special edition). On that album, Mercury brought the dance elements introduced on Queen’s 1980 album The Game (and further explored on 1982’s Hot Space) to the forefront. Songs such as “I Was Born to Love You,” “Let’s Turn It On,” “Man Made Paradise,” “Your Kind of Lover,” and “Living on My Own” were made for mid-1980s dance floors.

When Mercury rocked out, as on “My Love Is Dangerous,” it was toned down, while his flair for the dramatic could be felt on “Made in Heaven,” “There Must Be More to Life Than This,” and the title cut. Mercury’s fascination with opera (remember Queen’s 1975 A Night at the Opera and the hit single “Bohemian Rhapsody”?) was allowed to blossom a few years later when he collaborated with renowned soprano Montserrat Caballe on the 1988 classical crossover recording Barcelona (presented here in a special edition). The third CD, which shares its name with the title of the set, is a compilation of tracks, including “The Great Pretender” and “Love Kills” (from the Metropolis soundtrack). The DVD and Blu-ray consist of music videos, including the “banned” video for “Living On My Own,” performance footage, and interviews. Additionally, the inclusion of a large poster and a 120-page book full of photos and quotes from Freddie make this a never-boring must-have audio/visual experience that Freddie would probably have approved of.

At the Party with My Brown Friends (Saddle Creek) is the second fulllength album in less than a year by “radical indigenous queer feminist” Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Katherine Paul). You can hear 86 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

strains of the Portland sound in “At the Party” and “My Heart Dreams,” the first couple of tracks on the album. “Going to the Beach with Haley” opens things up a bit by moving in a lushly sophisticated direction.

The same can be said for songs such as “Run It to Ya,” “You’re Me and I’m You,” and “Half Colored Hair.” “I Said I Wouldn’t Write This Song” is the kind of number that would have made the late Portland music-scene legend Elliott Smith proud. [Editor’s note: Black Belt Eagle Scout performs on November 22 at Barracuda in Austin and on November 24 at The Satellite in Houston.]

In a near-perfect world, the “country music” fans at Country Thunder would take one listen to Orville Peck (the queer fringemasked cowboy whose real name is said to be Daniel Pitout) and toss their Toby Keith CDs out the windows of their monster F-150 King Ranch trucks. (Hey, in the age of Lil Nas X, anything is possible.) Possessing a voice that recalls country crooners of old, and a knack for writing songs in a vintage style, Peck gallops into our hearts with his distinctive debut album Pony (Sub Pop), featuring unforgettable songs such as “Dead of Night,” “Hope to Die,” “Turn to Hate,” “Queen of the Rodeo,” “Roses Are Falling,” and “Big Sky.” Like a musical tattoo, DC-based selfdescribed “queer, plussize” singer/songwriter Heather Mae made an indelible impression on listeners with her 2016 debut EP I Am Enough.

Three years later, she has returned with her debut album Glimmer (heathermae.net). Heather Mae sets the tone with the fierce empowerment anthem “Warrior.” She also demonstrates that she

knows her way around a love song with “You Are My Favorite,” written for her wife. She gets anthemic again on the powerful Pride number “Be Not Afraid.” Heather Mae, who has been open about her life with bipolar disorder, addresses it directly in the title song, as well as “In My Head,” “Smoke Signals,” “I’m Still Here,” and “Feelin’ Crazy.”

Do you remember how you felt the first time you heard Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange? Be prepared to feel that way again when you hear Before You Begin (Thrill Jockey), the debut album by Atlanta-based queer artist Sequoyah Murray.

From the operatic wail of the aptly titled “Here We Go” to the roof-raising, stripped-down gospel of “I Wonder” to the retro-electro dance of “Sublime,” you know that you are experiencing something fresh and stimulating. The same holds true for “Sunflower (I Love You More),” “Let’s Take the Time,” and the gear-shifting “Blue Jays.” The title cut closes out the disc on a breezy note, and the only negative is that the album ends too soon.

Like a blast from the past that you don’t remember experiencing, Lower Dens, led by non-binary vocalist Jana Hunter, reinterprets and revives ’80s new wave on its second album, The Competition (Ribbon Music). Dig out your favorite pair of Demonia Creepers and dance like there’s no tomorrow to songs such as “Hand of God,” “I Drive,” “Simple Life,” “Galapagos,” and “Lucky People.”

Producer/musician/songwriter Mark Ronson, the brother of lesbian DJ Samantha Ronson (Lindsay Lohan’s ex), is newly out as a sapiosexual (Google it). He shifts gears on the aptly

CONTINUED ON PAGE 88

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named Late Night Feelings (RCA), his first collaborative studio album since his Grammywinning chart-topping megahit single “Uptown Funk.” Teaming up with an all-female cast of artists, Ronson gets emotional while still finding a way to encourage us to dance on the title cut (sung by Lykke Li), “Find U Again” (vocals by Camila Cabello), “Nothing Like a Broken Heart” (belted by Miley Cyrus), “Pieces of Us” (done by King Princess), “Don’t Leave Me Lonely” (featuring Yerba), and “True Blue” (performed by Angel Olsen), to name a few.

If you’ve been following the recording career of queer singer/ songwriter Sean Wiggins, you know that she’s no stranger to baring her soul musically— and baring herself on her album covers. The aptly titled Exposed (seanwiggins.com) is no exception, with Wiggins featured in the altogether. Her first new studio effort in a few years, Wiggins’ voice sounds better than ever, and she has expanded her musical palette to great effect on songs such as the bloody-good opener “Vampire,” the moody “Don’t Wake Me,” the front-porch Americana of “How the Time Goes,” and the hopeful ballad “I’ll Find My Way.” Next time you see Yvonne Doll, the out songwriter and frontwoman of the band The Locals, ask her to tell you the story about her battle with the Oakland-based band The Matches. It’s one for the record books, so to speak. Minutes, Seconds, Degrees (localsrock.com) is the new vinyl LP by The Locals. Fans and newcomers alike are sure to dig the fiery combo of Doll’s powerful, windowrattling vocals and the full-throttle rock of the album’s nine tracks.

Doing her part to dispel the myth of the humorless lesbian, Samantha Sidley kicks off her debut full-length recording Interior Person (Release Me), produced by her wife Barbara Gruska (of The Belle Brigade), with the sassy song “I Like Girls.”

The jazzy album features tunes that could easily find a home in the contemporary cabaret acts that want to expand their repertoire beyond the familiar Great American Songbook selections, including “Butterfly in My Ass,” “Naked to Love,” “Busy Doin’ Nothin’,” and “Easy to Be True.”

Gregg Shapiro is a regular contributor to OutSmart magazine.

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210 Emerson Street • Houston, Texas 77006 www.LEmerson.net OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 89

BAR & CLUB GUIDE HOUSTON BACCO WINE GARDEN Enjoy light snacks, a glass of wine or your favorite cocktail in one of their cozy rooms or outdoor patios. 3611 Montrose Blvd. • 346.444.5275 • baccowinebars.com There’s always something going on at TONY’S CORNER POCKET!

Houston’s Hottest Male Amateur Strip Contest Headquarters!

817 W. Dallas 713.571.7870 Voted the Best Place to Watch Male Dancers Tues. and Thurs, – Sunday Nights

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BARCODE Houston’s newest bar with happy hours from 11am to 8pm daily, this new neighborhood watering hole is a great place to see drag shows and strippers Tuesdays—Saturdays and karaoke Sundays & Mondays. 817 Fairview St. 713.526.2625 • barcodehouston.net BLUR Multi-level dance club featuring an upstairs lounge and balconies. Ladies enjoy Wet and Wild Wed., 18-year-olds welcome Thurs., Latin night on Sun. Happy hour 8–10pm; free cover before 11pm. 710 Pacific St. blurbar.com.

CLUB CRYSTAL Find many of Inergy’s former staff and décor at this two-room Latin/hip-hop club. Sunday evening drag shows rule the roost. 6680 Southwest Frwy, next to Colorado 713.278.2582 • crystaltheclub.com.

Eat, Drink & Be MARY! Best Drag Show Bar • Most Supportive of the LGBTQ Community • Best Brunch Best Hamburger • Best Place to Celebrate

2409 GRANT ST. For Hours of Operation and Reservations, please visit:

713.677.0674 • HamburgerMarys.com/Houston

Reservations Strongly Recommended • Yelp Rez available

HAPPY, HARD & DEEP BAR NONE! SATURDAYS 10pm-2am OatUTthe SMART’s Bar Guide is the RIPCORD best place to advertise your bar! letters@outsmartmagazine.com

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CROCKER BAR This comfortably remodeled Montrose nightspot also offers karaoke on Tuesdays and Thursdays and extended happy-hour prices throughout the week. 2312 Crocker • 713.529.3355.

GEORGE Regulars rule at this comfortable neighborhood sports bar. Sports Saturdays and Sundays start at 3pm with dart and pool tournaments. 617 Fairview • 713.528.8102.

GUAVA LAMP This trendy and friendly video and cruise bar gets busy during happy hour and stays busy ‘til closing. Karaoke on Wed. and Sun. 570 Waugh Dr. • 713.524.3359 • guavalamphouston.com HAMBURGER MARY’S Since 1972, Mary has served up amazing food and stellar shows! With the best drag talent in the city, it’s been voted “Best Drag Show Bar,” “Most Supportive of the LGBTQ Community,” “Best Hamburger,” “Best Brunch,” “Friendliest Staff,” and “Best Place to Celebrate” by our readers. Be sure to try the famous Mac & Cheese Balls, or grab a leg glass (as seen on RuPaul’s Drag Race)!

Reservations recommended for shows.

2409 Grant St., 713.677.0674 • hamburgermarys.com EAGLE Part of the Eagle worldwide family, it’s the definitive home to the man’s man. Leather, Bear or Jock, you’ll find them here. Voted “Best Community Bar,” “Best Men’s Bar,” “Best Place to Show Your Leather,” “Best Happy Hour,” and “Best Place to Buy Erotic Playthings” by our readers. Eagle has multiple

levels and patios, along with DJs and male dancers—and it’s the place to watch sports.

Noon–2am every day, 611 Hyde Park Blvd., 713.523.BIRD • houstoneagle.com JR’S BAR & GRILL This Montrose standard offers drag and strip shows throughout the week, karaoke Thurs. and Sun., plus pool tables and male dancers.

808 Pacific St. • 713.521.2519 jrsbarandgrill.com LA GRANJA DISCO Y CANTINA Houston’s newest gay disco. Great drink prices, house DJs nightly. Open at 3pm until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Mondays. 5505 Pinemont • 713.518.6753 lagranjadisco.com MICHAEL’S OUTPOST Jerry Atwood, Clay Howell, Neil Massey, Steve Wheaton, and Roger Woest take turns at the keys at this comfortable neighborhood piano bar. 1419 Richmond Ave. • 713.520.8446 NEON BOOTS DANCEHALL & SALOON Houston’s only LGBTQ country dancehall opens Wednesday–Sunday. Wednesday features Steak Night and Bingo. Free dance classes on Thursdays, and karaoke. 11410 Hempstead Hwy 713.677.0828 • neonbootsclub.com PEARL BAR This LGBT-friendly lounge in the Washington corridor features daily highlights like open mic night, steak night, and drink specials.

4216 Washington • pearlhouston.com ReBar A haute nightclub with a celebrated patio that features renowned DJs and Entertainers.

Opening early October.

THE RIPCORD This multi-roomed leather bar boasts a busy patio, especially on the weekends. The Forge shop located inside the club. Saturday nights with DJ Tad Dvorak. 715 Fairview Ave • 713.521.2792 RUDYARD’S The eclectic British pub is known for its craft beers as well as for the burgers. Most weekends you’ll find up-and-coming local bands rocking the house. 2010 Waugh Dr. • 713.521.0521 • rudyardspub.com TONY’S CORNER POCKET This comfortable club has one of the friendliest bar staffs in town. Amateur dance contest each Thurs., Fri., & Sat. at 11pm. Opens daily at noon. 817 W. Dallas • 713.571.7870 • tonyscornerpocketbar.com VIVIANA’S Happening weekend-only gay dance club with Latin DJs, singers, talent shows & Sunday strippers.

4624 Dacoma • 713.681.4104

Behind the Bar

Best Steak Night at a Bar Winner

POP-UP COOKING EVENTS, CATERING & PRIVATE CHEF GEORGE SPORTS BAR THURSDAY NIGHTS

What is the best and worst holiday to work? Why?

The best holiday to work is Thanksgiving Eve. Lots of folks back in town, and they need liquid courage to face their families. The worst holiday is Halloween, especially when you cannot see who is in the costume.

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REBAR Shifts: Friday - Tuesday nights What is your favorite shot to make? To drink?

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Who are the hardest customers to please?

The ones that don’t know their drinks—like they want something that’s “strong but sweet.”

Where is your favorite place to drink when not on duty? If you weren’t a bartender, It depends on the day of the week—could be Eagle, Rip- what career would you cord, or Guava Lamp! choose?

What is a current bar trend you’d like to see end?

I wish people would leave their technology at home and actually interact with other people in the bar.

My butt . . .

RUMORS BEAUMONT Now open in the old Orleans Street Pub location. Drag shows with Dessie Love-Blake, Lady Shamu, Kara Dion and more. 650 Orleans • 713.539.5183 rumorsbeaumont.com

BRYAN/COLLEGE STATION HALO VIDEO BAR The only LGBT dance club in Bryan/College station, this sleek spot is open Thurs.–Sat. smack in the middle of Aggieland. 121 North Main • 979.823.6174 • halobcs.com

GALVESTON 23RD ST. STATION The bar features daily drink specials and the weekend is filled with pulsing music, hot dancers, drag shows, and a Sunday Tea Dance. 1706 23rd St. • 409.621.1808

What is the best part about working at this bar?

We are brand new—but this is the second time I have opened this location!

What are you best known for?

BEAUMONT

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ROBERT’S LAFITTE The Island institution features a private patio with swimming pool. On Sat. and Sun. nights, the Ladies of Lafitte show takes the stage.

2501 Avenue Q (at 25th) • 409.765.9092 RUMORS BEACH BAR Drink specials every night and daily daydrinking specials starting at noon. Great drag shows Fri. – Sun. and karaoke Sun. – Thurs. at 8pm. Sunday Drag Bingo. 3102 Seawall Blvd.

409.497.4617 • rumorsbeachbar.com

SPRING RANCH HILL SALOON With its two pool tables, 52-inch plasma televisions, and large dance floor, this popular northside spot also offers DJs Thurs.– Sat. 24704 I-45N Suite 103 • 281.298.9035 • ranchhill.com.

THE ROOM BAR AND LOUNGE This bar and video lounge has a laid-back atmosphere. DJs several nights a week. 4915 FM 2920 • 281.907.6866 • roombarspring.com

If you want to drink, that’s your business.

If you want to stop, that’s ours.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Hundreds of meetings a week in your area.

Call (713) 686-6300 or visit www.aahouston.org For general information visit: www.aa.org OutSmartMagazine.com

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ADVERTISERS INDEX

ACCOMMODATIONS/HOTELS

CHURCHES/SPIRITUAL CENTERS

Society For The Performing Arts

SPAHouston.org..............................713/227-4772

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Bering United Methodist

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Le Méridien Houston Downtown

First Christian Church

StagesTheatre.com......................... 713-527-0123

High Point Uptown

1121 Walker.....................................346/330-3453 L’Emerson Corporate Lodging

...........................................................Lemerson.net The Post Oak Hotel

1600 West Loop South..................844/386-1600 South Shore Harbour

2500 South Shore Blvd..................281/334-1000

ACCOUNTANTS/BOOKKEEPERS/ CPAS Gary Gritz, CPA

230 Westcott, Ste 210................... 713/784-3030

ACUPUNCTURE

Heart Light Acupuncture

...........................................................832/865-1177 Houston Integrative Health, Acupuncture and Mindful Movement

1601 Sunset.................................... 713/526-8125 Living Mosaic Church

401 Branard St................................ 832/971-0364

St Paul’s United Methodist Church

5501 Main........................................713/528-0527 St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

1805 W. Alabama........... ststephenshouston.org

CLEANING SERVICES

Dexter’s Five Star Service/Bob Samora

........................................................... 832/252-1961

COMMUNITY/NONPROFIT AARP

ADVERTISING/MARKETING

1435 Westheimer................... outofthecloset.org

.................................................. Ashkanmedia.com

...............................................713-526-1017, ext.20

Mat Hat Maven Creative

madhatmaven.com.......................832/460-6263 OutSmart Magazine

3406 Audubon................................713/520-7237

AIR CONDITIONING/HEATING Newport Air

HEALTH CARE/COLON/RECTAL CARE

Theatre Under The Stars

7400 Fannin St., Set 1295..............832/932-1720

The Compound Antique Show

2550 S. State Hwy 237....Roundtopcompound.com

Tony’s Corner Pocket

817 W. Dallas...................................832/722-7658

FERTILITY/GYNECOLOGY

Aspire Fertility

AspireFertility.com.........................713/425-3003

FINANCIAL PLANNING/BANKS

Bering Connect

EPAH

Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce

HoustonLGBTChamber.com.........832-510-3002 Harris County Sheriff’s Office

2500 Rice Blvd................................ 713/527-4400 Elite Care League City

20000 Dallas Pkwy., Ste. 100........972/378-7878

FITNESS CLUBS/PERSONAL TRAINERS

...................................................................EPAH.org

HEALTH CARE-EMERGENCY CENTERS

Elite Care 24 Hour Emergency Center

Grace Yung/Midtown Financial

AIDS Healthcare Foundation/Out of the Closet

Diana Foundation

HEALTH CARE-ORTHODONTISTS

Orthotex/Dr. Zane Haider, DMD, MS

Orthotexsmiles.com.......................281/937-2540 2540 FM 2920, Spring....................281/937-2540 11942 Barker Cypress, Cypress....281/937-2540

2530 Gulf Fwy.................................281/337-7500

3355 Alabama, Ste 180..................713/355-9833

.......................................TheDianaFoundation.org

Texas Oncology Surgical Specialists

Richard Dickson/Galene Financial

1700 W Loop S, Ste 255................ 713/489-4322

....................................................... aarp.org/pride

Montrose Dental Group/Bruce W. Smith, DDS

620 W Alabama.............................. 713/529-4364

Theatre Southwest

Thearesouthwest.org.....................713/661-9505 800 Bagby, Suite 200...................... tuts.com/out

Resurrection MCC

2025 W 11th..................................... 713/861-9149

716 Chelsea Blvd............................ 832/215-2039 Ashkan Media

Stages Theatre

Montrose Dental Group/Austin T. Faulk, DDS

620 W Alabama.............................713/529-4364

Elite Care Plano

Beaumont Emergency Center

4004 College St............................. 409/840-4004 Kingwood Emergency Hospital

Club Houston

Hwy 59 N.........................................832/777-6165

FIT

150 E. Harmon Ave.......................702/546-0911

2205 Fannin ................................... 713/659-4998 Fithouston.com.............................. 713/529-1515

FOOD/SPECIALTY & SPIRITS

DASH Handmaid Vodka

......................................................dashvodka.com Deep Eddy Vodka

..............................................deepeddyvodka.com

Elite Medical Center/Vegas, NV

SignatureCare Emergency Centers

1007 Westheimer............................281/709-2897 1925 TC Jester.................................832/850-4338 1014 Wirt Rd.....................................832/924-0312 Additional locations.......................ercare24.com

newportair.net ..............................281/808-8630

...........................................................hcsojobs.com

Dripping Springs

................................... drippingspringsvodka.com

HEALTH CARE-FOOT/ ANKLE SPECIALISTS

ART GALLERIES & MUSEUMS

.......................................................... thecaucus.org KPFT Radio

HAIR/NAIL/MAKE-UP SALONS

Soleaesthetictx.com.....................713/666-9934

Lesbian Health Initiative (LHI)

719 W. Gray St.............................. 713/5212-0500

Avenue 360

Houston GLBT Political Caucus

Archway Gallery

2305 Dunlavy.......................archwaygallery.com Foto Relevance

616 Hawthorne...................... fotorelevance.com The Menil Collection

1533 Sul Ross St..................................... .menil.org

ASTROLOGER

Lilly Roddy Astrology

kpft.org............................................ 713-526-4000

401 Branard................................... lhihouston.org Lesbians Over Age Fifty (L.O.A.F.)

lesbiansoverage50.org..................713/907-5378

MyGayHouston.com

.............................. MyGayHouston.com/discover Pet Patrol

Green Apple Salon

Avenue360.org................................713/426-0027

HEALTH - AGE MANAGEMENT

...............................LegacyCommunityHealth.org

515 Westheimer............................ 713/524-7858 Share Wellness & MediSpa/Dr. John Share

4011 Richmond Ave........................713/621-8200

..................................................... ThePetPatrol.org

ATTORNEYS/LEGAL SERVICES

............................................ ppgulfcoast.org/lgbtq

2600 SW Fwy, Ste 409.................. 713/589-9804

TexasLegalPlanning.com.........281/464-LAWS (5297)

rwpcHouston.org .......................... 713-572-3724

Ryan White Planning Council

Champion Counseling/ Yvonne Champion, LCSW, CGP

COMPUTERS/INTERNET/IT SERVICES

Denise O’Doherty, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, RN

Christopher Barber/Barber Jackson Law Charles Hunter/Hayes Hunter PC

...........................................................281/768-4731 Gonzalez Olivieri LLC

gonzalezolivierillc.com..................713/481-3040 Katine & Nechman LLP

Copy.com

1201-F Westheimer........................... 713/528-120

1834 Southmore.............................713/808-1001

ENTERTAINMENT/NIGHT LIFE

Dwane Todd Law Firm

Alley Theatre

405 Main St., Ste 602.................... 713/965-0658

Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen Live

AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRS

Ticketmaster.com .........................800/745-3000

716 Fairview...................................713/522-3602

..........................................................galveston.com

Ryan Automotive

Tech Auto Maintenance

37 Waugh Dr................................... 713/863-8244

AUTOMOTIVE SALES

Central Houston Cadillac/Tony Mcclelland

2520 Main St....................................832/981-7590

HEALTH CARE–COUNSELING/THERAPY

D. “Woodja” Flanigan, MS, LPA

ChampionCounseling.com........ 832/6543-5168

3131 Eastside St., Ste. 435...........713/524-9525 Dr. Barry F. Gritz, MD

Galveston Island Convention George Country Sports Bar

617 Fairview ...................................713/528-8102 Houston Eagle

611 Hyde Park........................HoustonEagle.com

Legacy Community Health

HEALTH CARE–OPHTHALMOLOGISTS

Houston Eye Associates/Stewart Zuckerbrod, MD

5420 Dashwood, Ste 101............... 713/668-9118

HEALTH CARE–OPTOMETRISTS

Boutique Eye Care

2502 Woodhead.............................713/528-2010 Eye Contact

2055 Westheimer.......................... 713/520-6600 Eye Gallery

Dr. Daniel Garza, MD

1806B Westheimer.........................713/523-1279 1700 Post Oak Blvd, Ste 110.......... 713/622-7470

Jeffrey Myles/JM Professional Services

432 W. 19th..................................... 713/864-8822

The Montrose Center

520 Waugh Dr.................................713/352-0974

Psynergy Psychological Associates

4317 Montrose, Ste. 2....................713/529-3937

230 Westcott, Ste 210................... 713/869-7400 3131 Eastside St, Ste 4...............15281/610-8190

615 Texas Ave..............................alleytheatre.org

HEALTH CARE-HIV/STD TESTING

NU-Cuts Hair Salon

...........................................................713/529-5842

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

Sole Aesthetic/Dr. Vanessa T. Barrow

........................................................... 713/447-2164 401 Branard.................................... 713/529-0037 Dr. Catherine Boswell, Psychologist Victoria Jones, MEd, MA, LPC-S Psynergypsych.com.......................713/724-7050

Eye To Eye

Montrose Eye Care/ Dr. Paul Lovero

Spectacles on Montrose

HEALTH CARE/PHARMACIES

Avita Pharmacy

Robert Snellgrove, LMSW-ACP

AvitaPharmacy.com...................... 713/489-4362

4617 Montrose, Ste C206.............. 713/522-7014

Legacy Pharmacy

JR’s/Santa Fe

Christine Wysong

230 Westcott, Ste 210..................713/869-7400

LegacyCommunityHealth.org/services/pharmacy/

La Granja Disco Y Cantina

HEALTH CARE–DENTISTS

Crom Rehabilitation/Dr. Roy Rivera

Lake Charles

2313 Edwards St., Ste. 150............. 713/518-1411

Midtown Houston

2313 Edwards St., Ste 150............ 713/518-1411

DessertGallery.com.......................713-522-9999

Miller Outdoor Theatre

MillerOutdoorTheatre.com...........281/373-3386

530 Waugh Dr................................ 713/942-8598

CATERING SERVICES

Pearl Bar

1722 W. Alabama........................... 713/592-9300

Rainbow on the Green

Orthotexsmiles.com.......................281/937-2540

Round Top Festival Institute

620 W Alabama.............................713/529-4364

Knapp Chevrolet/Ben Webster

814 Houston Ave............................ 979/533-4363

808 Pacific....................................... 713/521-2519

BAKERIES/CUSTOM CAKES

5505 Pinemont Dr..........................713/518-6753

604 W. Alabama.............................713/520-1484

Visitlakecharles.org/greattimes.... .800/456-7952

Acadian Bakers

David Alcorta Catering

davidalcorta.net............................. 832/439-0224 Dessert Gallery

David Alcorta Catering

davidalcorta.net............................. 832/439-0224 Jim Benton of Houston Catering

2811 Eastman................................. 713/802-2860

............................................Midtownhouston.com

4216 Washington................... PearlHouston.com .............................. discoverygreen.com/rainbow

HEALTH-PHYSICAL THERAPY

Bayou City Smiles/Marcus de Guzman, DDS

Cromrehab.com..............................713/868-2766

Bayou City Smiles/ Cynthia Corral, DDS

EmotionSportsTherapy.com........707/948-6480

Cory Logan, DDS

LifeSmiles by Randy Mitchmore, DDS

Orthotex/Dr. Zane Haider, DMD MS

Montrose Dental Group/Samuel A. Carrell, DDS

248 Jaster Rd...................................979/249-3129

92 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

Want to have your business listed here?

E=Motion Sports Therapy

HEALTH CARE–PHYSICIANS

Octavio Barrios, MD

507 West Gray.................................713/942-7546 7106 Spencer Highway................. 281/542-9400 Steven Becker MD

Stevenbeckermd.com.................... 713/932-1924 Gordon Crofoot, MD/Crofoot MD

3701 Kirby, Ste.1230...................... 713/526-0005

ADVERTISERS INDEX

Abel Flores, MD/Crofoot MD

3701 Kirby, Ste.1230.................... 713/526-0005 M. Sandra Scurria, MD

6565 West Loop South, Ste 300... 281/661-5901

Tom Zeppelin/Zeppelin Massage

Martha Turner Properties

Visit Palestine

ZeppelinMassage.com.................. 713/542-0426

Marthaturner.com.......................... 713/520-1981

Visitplaestine.com.........................800/659-3484

PERSONAL TRAINERS

Thomas Phillips/KW Memorial

WEDDING SERVICES/BAKERS

t.phillips@kw.com........................ 832/305-7848

Derek Smith, AGPCNP-BC/Crofoot MD

Michael Shallis Body Evolution.com.......................281/881-8599

2 Greenway Plaza, Ste 150.......... .832/306-7078

Maggie White,MPH FNP-BC AAHIVS/ Gordon Crofoot

PEST CONTROL SERVICES

Debbie Levine/Greenwood King Properties

3701 Kirby, Ste.1230...................... 713/526-0005 3701 Kirby Dr., Ste.1230............... 713/526-0005

HEALTH CARE–PRODUCTS

Avicenna’s Ultra-Premium CBD Tinctures

..................................................avicenna-labs.com

HEALTH CARE–SERVICES

Avenue 360

Avenue360.org................................713/426-0027 GAINSWave Treatment for ED

Andy’s All Star Pest Control

........................................................... 713/732-7742

PET SERVICES& SUPPLIES

Bayou City Veterinary Hospital

4720 Washington........................... 713/343-9909 The Dog House Pet Salon

6434 Washington.........................713/820-6140 5917 Richmond.................TheDogHousePS.com Midtown Veterinary Hospital

practice.gainswave.com/stevenfein... 281/487-0812

MidtownVetHospital.com............ 713-528-4900

Harris County Public Health

Natural Pawz

Publichealth.harriscountytx.gov..713/439-6293

208 Westheimer...................... naturalpawz.com

Houston Health Department

Pet Patrol

.....................................................PensHouston.org Legacy Community Health

..................................................... ThePetPatrol.org Spay-Neuter Assistance Program

LegacyCommunityHealth.org..... 832/548 5000

Snapus.org.......................................713/862-3863

Ryan White Planning Council

The Ruff – House Cage Free Daycare & Boarding

RWPCHouston.org.........................713/572-3784 St. Hope Foundation

offeringhope.org.............................713/778-1300 UT Hearts

...........................................................713/486-2736

HEALTH CARE–SKIN CARE

Heights Dermatology/Alpesh Desai, MD

2120 Ashland.................................. 713/864-2650 Skin Renaissance Laser/Octavio Barrios, MD

507 West Gray.................................713/942-7546 The Skin Renewal Center

1512 West Alabama....................... 713/533-0800

712 Fairview..................................... 713/521-7877 West Alabama Animal Clinic

2030 W. Alabama...........................713/528-0818

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Dalton DeHart Photography

DaltonDehart.com..........................713/622-2202

Yvonne Feece Photography

yvonnefeece.com...........................832/876-1053

PHOTOGRAPHY

Houston Camera Exchange

5900 Richmond Ave.......................713/789-6901

HEALTH CARE-WEIGHT LOSS CLINICS

PLUMBING

517 West Gray.................................713/942-7546

1424 Montrose................................ 713-942-2277

HOME BUILDERS

5403 Kirby...........................713/224-DRIP(3747)

Colinahomes.com. ....................... 281/463-0355

POOLS & POOL SERVICES

Dr. B-Fit/ Octavio Barrios, MD

Colina Homes

HOME FURNISHINGS/ACCESSORIES

Cantoni

9889 Westheimer............................cantoni.com

coda

355 W 19th.......................................713/864-4411 Fountains and Statuary

11804 Hempstead Rd.....................713/957-3672 Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

Alexander Webb/Coldwell Banker

Lynette Lew/Better Homes and Gardens

DessertGallery.com.......................713-522-9999

LynetteLew.com..............................713/582-2202 Danny Pleason/Martha Turner

Dannypleason.com........................832/661-1502

Tom Schwenk/Tom’s Galveston Real Estate

Tomsgalvestonrealestate.com......713-857-2309

1201-F Westheimer......................... 713/528-1201

PSYCHIC READERS

Readings by LA

2811 Eastman................................. 713/802-2860

B. Kent Turner/Coldwell Banker

WEDDING SERVICES/PHOTO/VIDEO

..........................................................479/363-6586 Calvin Upton/Anthony Upton Properties

AnthonyUptonProperties.com.... 713/528-0050 Andy Weber/John Daugherty Realtors

520 Post Oak................................... 713/724-4306

RELOCATIONS SPECIALISTS

MERelocation.com........................ 713/344-0035

RESTAURANTS/COFFEE/WINE BARS

Dessert Gallery

DessertGallery.com.......................713-522-9999 Free Grillin’/Chef Michele

...........................................................832/419-0165 Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino

3215 Westheimer............................ 713/522-1934 Gloria’s Latin Cuisine Hamburger Mary’s

Indika

516 Westheimer.............................. 713/524-2170 Jenni’s Noodle House

3111 S. Shepherd.............................713/523-7600 602 E. 20th St. ................................713/862-3344 2027 Post Oak Blvd........................713/621-4200 3773 Richmond...............................713/714-8258 Katz’s Deli

616 Westheimer Rd.........katzsneverkloses.com Khyber Grill

2510 Richmond Ave........................713/942-9424

.................................................................Radio.com

1040 W. Sam Houston Prkwy. N..832/981-4976

INSURANCE AGENCIES/AGENTS

REAL ESTATE–MORTGAGE/TITLE

Niko Niko’s Niko Niko’s

3700 Buffalo Speedway.................713/418-7000

3414 Washington Ave.........feasturbaneats.com

JEWELERS

2121 Sage Road, Ste 140................713/299-4981

Silverlust

1338-C Westheimer..................... 713/520-5440 Tenenbaum Jewelers

4310 Westheimer............................713/629-7444 Zadok Master Jewelers

1749 Post Oak Blvd........................ 713/960-8950

LANDSCAPING/GARDENING

Joshua’s Native Plants & Antiques

SCHOOLS

REAL ESTATE–REALTORS

1601 Sunset......................................713/526-8125

Brooks Ballard/Engel & Volkers

SPECIALTY RETAIL

309 Gray........................................... 713/522-7474

1001 Austin St.................... phoeniciafoods.com

Tina Burgos/Inverness Realty Group

TELEPHONES/CELL/WIRELESS

David@DavidBowers.com..........409/763-2800

TinaSellsHouston.com................... 713/562-3149 ...........................................................713/677-4337

seEQmore.com................................832/495-1441

karenderr.com................................713/875-7050

RyanMassageWorks.com..............713/269-7926

Phoenicia Specialty Foods

David Bowers/The House Company/Galveston

LIFE COACHING

Ryan Fugate, RMT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and School

1800 Sul Ross................................... 713/821-9100

Jeremy Fain/Greenwood King Properties

MASSAGE THERAPISTS

First Christian School

AnthonyUptonProperties.com.... 713/528-0050

502 W. 18th St.................................713/862-7444 seEQmore

Urban Eats

Keith Russell/Republic State Mortgage

Tim Anthony/Anthony Upton Properties

Karen Derr/Karen Derr Realty Clayton Katz/Compass

Compass.com.................................. 832/512-2180 Ed Melchor/Sotheby’s

edmelchor.com............................... 713/851-0912

BUSINESSES

WHO believe IN

EQUALITY.

Riva’s Italian Restaurant

3420 Rusk, Ste. 22..........................281/723-1294

2221 S. Voss Rd...............................713/789-3359

your LOCAL

2316 S. Shepherd Dr..................... 281/888-3599

1117 Missouri St.............................. 713/529-3450

Select Jewelers

NURTURE

The Red Lion Pub & Eating House

JFriedmanLoans.com......713/785-LOAN (5626) Chicago Title –Inner Loop

Harmony Strings String Quartet

....................................www.harmonystrings.com

Bollo Houston Wood Fired Pizza

5120 Woodway Dr., Ste. 4020......713/999-1222

Patrick Torma/Goosehead Insurance

WEDDING SERVICES/SERVICES 204 Marshall St. #5........................713/487-6076

2202 W Alabama St........................713/677-0391

2520 Montrose................................713/528-4976

J. Friedman Mortgage

yvonnefeece.com...........................832/876-1053

604 W.Alabama..............................713/520-1484

RADIO STATIONS

2200 North Loop W, Ste 136....... 713/688-8669

DaltonDehart.com..........................713/622-2202

Yvonne Feece-Tran Photography

Acadian Bakers

INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICES

Lane Lewis/Farmers Insurance

Dalton DeHart Photography

Bradley David Entertainment

M E Relocation

readingbyLA.com...........................832/856-2188 Channel Q/95.7 HD2

davidalcorta.net............................. 832/439-0224

1802 Broadway/Galveston........... 409/765-9837

4091 Westheimer...........................832/397-5130 Dream by MJS Interiors

WEDDING SERVICES/CATERERS David Alcorta Catering

Jim Benton of Houston Catering

2409 Grant.......................................713/677-0674

PRINTING/COPY CENTERS

Dessert Gallery

VJ Tramonte/Joe Tramonte Realty

Village Plumbing & Appliance

Copy.com

David Alcorta Catering

davidalcorta.net............................. 832/439-0224

2616 Louisiana................................832/360-1710

........................................................... 713/447-9201

604 W. Alabama.............................713/520-1484

...........................................................713/942-6857

U-Plumb-It Plumbing Supply

Venture Pools

Acadian Bakers

Thank You for supporting our advertisers!

Get listed on this page.

Call 713/520-7237 for details.

Premier Wireless

12220 Murphy................................ 281/575-8500

TRAVEL/TRAVEL AGENCIES Aquafest

Aquafestcruises.com.....................800/592-9058 Concierge Travel, Inc

4920 Mimosa....................................713/661-2117 Lake Charles

Visitlakecharles.org/greattimes.. 800/456-7952 OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER 2019 93

MARKETPLACE CLASSIFIEDS

“Sip, Swirl, Swallow!”

EMPLOYMENT

ACCOMMODATIONS

Micheline R. Ramos, Wine lover

Fully Furnished Corporate Apartments

MASSAGE AND BODYWORK Adam Skidmore L.M.T.

PAIN RELIEF & RELAXATION CERTIFIED IN:

Medical Massage, Structural Integration, Deep Tissue, Myofascial Release 936.443.1975 | adamskidmore108@yahoo.com

Wine Garden & Spirits

www.LEmerson.net

hiring bartenders, JoinNow us for fun and a glass of wine cooks cocktail servers or yourand favorite holiday spirit!

Bacco is an indoor/outdoor wine and 3611spirits Montrose Blvd. 2| large (346) 444-5275 bar featuring outdoor

CHURCHES

patios and cozy rooms inside to enjoy your favorite wine, cheese plates, pizzas, sandwiches and more.

We are looking to hire friendly faces. Bartenders should have some knowledge of wine. Cocktail and food servers deliver food and beverages in main building as well as Carriage House and outdoor patios.

Cooks should be able to make food such as pizza, salad, sandwiches as well as cook specialty items on certain nights and days such as lobster, steak or work our Sunday Brunch.

SUN. 10:00 AM: Worship Service WED. 7:00 PM: Bible Study 401 Branard : Houston, 77006

COMPUTER SERVICES

Plain Talk

Real help.

Gary Joseph Owner

PC Home ech

SM

In-Home In-Home Computer Computer Services Services

Bacco Wine Garden & Spirits 3611 Montrose Blvd.

EMPLOYMENT

Every Two Weeks ACCEPTING 2 NEW CLIENTS

Call Loyal SERVICES

Kahn’s Oriental Rug Washing Family Owned Since 1954 Pet Odor & Stain Specialist Hand Washing & Restoration

Haroon Khan, Director

713.960.8200

Tom Zeppelin, LMT

713.542.0426

ZeppelinMassage.com Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Find new clients for your massage business in OutSmart!

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Call 713/520-7237 for ad rates

www.pchometech.com

HOME CLEANING

713-705-6125

Readers’ Choice Winner Best Massage Therapist

Apply in person Monday through Friday 4pm -7pm

832.496.9246

SERVICES-CLEANING

Pet Walks & House Sitting Call Loyal & Bill 713-705-6125

BONDED & INSURED BY SCOTTSDALE INSURANCE

Your Pet’s Favorite Uncles

SALE OR LEASE

3212 Ave Q 1/2 $269,500 Circa 1923 4/3 two story 4 blocks to the beach Central air/heat

Advertising Sales Executives Successful candidates must be organized, self-motivated, energetic, outgoing, creative and goal-oriented. Previous experience in advertising and marketing sales preferred.

Salary+Commission, health benefits program included.

1718 Church $489,500 4/3/1 plus 3 apartments Circa 1887 East End

MASSAGE AND BODYWORK

Email resume to: Employment @

2207 Postoffice #206 $329,000 2/2 Eibands Condo. Elegant!

Carport. Downtown Galveston

OutSmartMagazine.com Attn: Greg Jeu, Publisher.

94

SWEDISH MASSAGE

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DEEP TISSUE

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409-763-2800

For rates/information call 713/520-7237 ext. 710.

SignOut | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 96

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22–Jan. 19)

This is a tense time for the Capricorns. Two major planets are coming together in your sign on January 12—but you don’t have to wait for that time, as you are feeling it now! It does continue to build through January. This is a time of old things passing away and looking for new directions and paths to pursue. You will feel unstable, and may not be sure of the right direction to follow. Friends can be especially supportive and helpful with advice that should make your choices easier. You are anxious to make some decisions about your career, but you should wait until after November 25 before you move forward. Relationships are being reexamined to determine if they are going to fit into your future. By the end of the month, you may need some time to yourself before the December holidays arrive. Keep clear about your needs, and pay attention to your boundaries.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18)

This is an energetic and dynamic time as the month begins. The larger theme is that you are looking to change your purpose and direction, and reconnect to something that drives your passions. With the planets moving through your career sector, you are looking for ways to make that part of your life more dynamic and interesting. You may be considering doing something on your

own, considering a promotion, or moving to live entirely off the grid. Your self-confidence is strong, and this is a good time to step up! By midmonth, you are more social and might be reconnecting with old friends. Your brain activity levels are strong throughout the month, so that may keep you from sleeping as soundly and making you less patient with other people. Obligations can make you feel more trapped with this energy. Have an exit strategy handy.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20)

Your pace slows down this month. This is a good time to relax and look for lessdemanding people and situations. This energy will be very strong through Thanksgiving. Choose your dinner companions carefully. This is actually a good time for you to travel, step away from your routines, or do some writing. There are some major shifts taking place with your friends or your community activities, so you may feel some parts of your life coming to a close.

Some decisions are being made that shift things. You may feel a lack of control there, regardless of the outcome. Toward the end of the month, you feel the pull of holiday outreach and your desires to keep things more minimal. By the middle of December, you will be feeling more energetic and ready to embrace the December holidays!

Voted Houstons best massage therapist,

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019!

–outsmart magazine

For more astro-insight, log on to lillyroddy.com.

Right now is the perfect opportunity TO BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE TO BE COMPASSIONATE TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Thank you again to my OutSmart readers for voting me Best Astrologer for all of these years.”

TO SHOW GRATITUDE TO THOSE YOU LOVE AND TRULY APPRECIATE Voted BEST ASTROLOGER

by OutSmart Readers

LILLY RODDY A S T R O LO G E R Personal astrological sessions Relationship readings - personal /business Presentations & lectures to organizations CONSULTATIONS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY GIFT CERTIFICATES • CREDIT CARDS

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OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER OutSmartMagazine.com | NOVEMBER2019 2019 65 95 LillyRoddy_Nov14.indd 1

10/21/14 11:29 AM

SIGN OUT

By LILLY RODDY Illustration by JANIEWHATEVA

Low-Key anksgiving Keeping our lives simpler.

W

e begin November with Mercury in retrograde. Mercury, our organizer and detailer, will be direct by November 25!

Take care of existing projects, and avoid starting anything new until after November 25. The Mercury retrograde is a good time to revisit old friends, attend a high school reunion, or reconnect with old ideas that have been looking for a place to land! • Your Thanksgivings have been more low-key over the last couple of years, and that trend continues. With Neptune (our planet of introspection and isolation) going direct on the 27th, we will want to keep our lives simpler and more manageable at the end of the month through the first couple of weeks of December.

Our enthusiasm picks up as we approach the December holidays.

• The first two weeks of November are active, while the third week is not. In the last week of the month, the planetary energies are strong, and we may feel a bit off our game.

rub you the wrong way this month. This is a good time to renew the bonds with your partner, especially after midmonth.

Mercury retrograde will have an impact on your relationships, especially those from the past. This can be a great time to reconnect with old friends or former lovers. It’s always a good time to get your life more organized with Mercury retrograde!

ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19)

CANCER (June 22–July 22)

Relationships, trust, and shared goals are very important this month. Your relationships, both business and personal, need love and attention. This can be a great month to spend time with your partner to renew your bonds. Partnership problems will come to the surface so you can address them and rid yourself of the problem—or the relationship.

Your career sector is very busy, and you may be considering starting your own business, changing companies, or even retiring. You are rethinking your financial future as well.

You may be looking at alternative investment opportunities. After November 25, it is time to put your plans into action!

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20)

Personal freedom, and especially freedom of choice, is very active this month. You are looking to find some balance between your obligations and your need to take time for yourself. You are looking for new ways to express or reinvent yourself. Relationships and people that are too demanding will 96

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GEMINI (May 21–June 21)

You will be wanting more time and space to yourself this month. You are much more measured about the people you allow into your life at this time. You may be feeling like your energy is low and your tolerance level is nonexistent. This will be especially strong during the Thanksgiving holiday. Pace yourself. You are focused on improving your health and work conditions this month. You are ready to take the lead on improving your work environment, particularly after the 19th. With your ruling planet, Mercury, going retrograde, this is a more introspective time as you look back into your own past. This month is a great time to take care of existing projects and to reconnect with old family friends. Relationship energies continue to be positive and supportive, in spite of your indecision.

November will be a creative and expressive month for you, even with Mercury retrograde. You are recycling ideas from the past that you may not have been able to act upon earlier. You will need to put some energy into making your home safer and more comfortable. Family issues can arise, and you will be drawn into them even if it is not your problem. You may feel that you have to play the role of the diplomat to help everyone find common ground.

This is a good time for writing, editing your blog, and spending more time with your children. They can show you how to have fun and be serious at the same time! Partners can be demanding over the next few months as you both work to redefine your long-term goals. By the end of the month, you are shifting your focus to improving your health and your work environment .

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) Home and family take the lead this month.

This should be a good month for you

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SCORPIO (Oct. 24–Nov. 21)

Happy Birthday to the Scorpios, the Eagles, and the Phoenixes! This is your personal yearly cycle when you have the time to reflect on last year’s accomplishments and look forward to what the new year brings. With Mercury retrograde in your sign this month, this is an especially strong time of inner reflection. Your need to bring something new into your life to reignite your passions continues to build. You are looking at new career directions, and focusing on what you like to do instead of what you feel you have to do. You are more active and less patient after November 19. You will be taking life much more personally, and may be over-reactive at times. This is a good time to focus on your health, protecting what’s yours, and being more direct. You will not be very patient through the end of December. You are in a more playful mood by the end of the month.

to reconnect with family, particularly during the Thanksgiving holiday. You are exploring ways to limit your duties and responsibilities to others. You are cutting the cord and letting go of things from the past, and also questioning duties that you have always taken on as your own. You are certainly looking for ways to revisualize your career or vocation, and to make your home more comfortable to those you invite in. By the end of the month, you are in a more playful mood. You are ready for a trip out of town, or for taking a class or spending more time with your children. Relationships need to be easy, as you don’t have much patience for those demanding types.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22)

With your ruling planet, Mercury, retrograde this month until the 25th, you are reviewing your past accomplishments with nostalgic feelings. You are also using this time to get your workspace into better shape. Communications are very important this month. You should edit and re-edit what you write or sign. Your analytical skills are working overtime this month as you explore your own (and others’) agendas and core motivations. By midmonth, you are ready to focus on home and family, just in time for the holidays. Watch your impulse-spending, particularly in the first two-thirds of the month. This continues to be a good time for you to consider taking your creative endeavors and turn them into a career or vocation. You should be ready to act on this idea after November 25.

You are much more confident about your personal direction after December 3.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 23)

With Mars (the planet of confrontation, anger, and lack of patience) continuing his visit in your sign until the 19th, you are taking life much more personally. Your sense of “self-ness” is activated, which creates an internal imbalance with the ideals of Libra’s peaceful countenance.

The other major topic for you this month is your finances, investments, and improving your current skill sets. You are wanting to release yourself from debt, and you are working hard to get that accomplished. You may be establishing a budget or a savings plan to create greater long-term security.

This is a good time to consider raising your fees, as long as you don’t act on this idea until after November 25. You are much more lighthearted toward the end of the month. You are ready for an escape!

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)

The sluggish energy returns for you through this month and about half of December. You need more time to yourself, so avoid those who bring you too much drama. You will want to choose your Thanksgiving holiday guests with care! You will be more psychically sensitive during this time. Keep your holiday expectations realistic! In the first half of the month, you are definitely in a rest-and-retreat mode. This can be a great time for a short vacation, or to just step away from your work demands and domestic duties. Your creative energies are building, and you will need to find a good outlet for that part of you. You are more social toward the end of the year, closer to the December holidays .

CONTINUED ON PAGE 95

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SCENE OUT Photos by DALTON DEHART & EDGARDO AGUILAR

On September 29, The Houston GLBT Caucus hosted its 10th Annual Houston Equality Brunch at The Corinthian.

Pictured are Mike Webb, Lo “Lorin” Moton, Judge Fran Watson, Katy Caldwell, Landon Richie, Secunda Joseph, Mike Laster, Jude Feng, JD Doyle, and Judson Dunn.

On October 3, HCDLA 2019 held its October CLE Luncheon with Phillip Zelikow, professor of history and governance at the University of Virginia, at Churrascos River Oaks. Pictured are Mike Doyle, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Linda Listrom, Phillip Zelikow, and Barbara Radnofsky.

On September 5, Pride Houston presented its Heritage Gala 2019 “A Pride Scholarship Fundraiser” at the Crowne Plaza Galleria. Pictured are the scholarship recipients, PRIDE Houston members, and hosts of the event.

The Greater Houston LGBT Chamber presented its October “Brewing Up Business” at Metro on October 9.

Pictured are (first row) Art Murillo, Christine MorenoConnor, Tammi Wallace, Carrin Patman, Sanjay Ramabhadran. Second row: Luis Garcia, Tanya McWashington, Juan Polanco, and Tom Jasien.

On October 8, the Gay Area Yachting Society (GAYS) participated in the Harvest Moon Regatta. Pictured are Constantine Volo, Shawn Zernik, David Garrison, Ariel Pena, Stacy Mills, Judge Jerry Simoneaux, Michael Harrison, Bridget Upton, Mark Tarver, and Christopher Bown.

On October 11, The Montrose Center’s Out For Good event honored the legendary Tommie Ross at the Ballroom at Bayou Place. Pictured are Daryl Shorter, Tommie Ross, and Ann Robison.

On October 12, the annual Mental Health Awareness Walk was held at Stude Park. Pictured are Judge Steven Kirkland, Ann Harris Bennett, C. Patrick McIlvain, Vince Ryan, Karla Cisneros, and Chris Brown.

The Executive and Professional Association of Houston (EPAH) held its dinner meeting at Hamburger Mary’s on October 15. Pictured are Jovon Tyler, Scott Grauer, Randy Mitchmore, Justin Tyler, and Jerry Reyes.

On October 19, OutSmart and TUTS presented Out at TUTS after the performance of Spring Awakening.

Pictured are Michael Gier, Kyle Young, and Paula Chambers.

On October 19, The T.R.U.T.H. Project presented its second annual Code Red Fundraiser and Mixer at Winston Contemporary Art Gallery. Pictured are Robert Ross, Kevin Anderson, gallery owner Kevin Watson, Monique Lyons, Abiola Wabara, and Jacques Davis.

On October 24, the Human Rights Campaign held its kickoff for the HRC Dinner 2020 “Love, Act, Vote” at BBVA Stadium. Pictured are the dinner co-chairs Todd Litton, Jenni Tranweaver, and Rey Ocañas.

On September 28, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg celebrated her 60th birthday, “A Lifetime of Public Service,” at Poitin. Pictured are Vince Ryan, State Senator Carol Alvarado, Clarence O. “Brad” Bradford, DA Kim Ogg, State Senator John Whitmire, and Olivia Jordan (sitting).

On August 19, an investiture for Judge Lesley Briones

98 NOVEMBER 2019 | OutSmartMagazine.com

WORLD AIDS DAY 12/1 GET TESTED. GET PrEP. GET TREATMENT. END HIV. LegacyCommunityHealth.org

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